LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


■^/// //'s' 


s  . 


! 


MExMORIAL  RECORD 


OF   THE 


NATION'S    TRIBUTE. 


TO 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


"  THE  ECHOES  OF  HIS  FUNERAL  KNELL  VIBRATE  THROUGH  THE 
WORLD,  AND  THE  FRIENDS  OF  FREEDOM  OF  EVERY  TONGUE  AND 
IN  EVERY  CLIME   ARE  HIS  MOURNERS." — Bancroft  on  Prest.  Lincoln. 


COMPILED    BY    B.    F.     MORRIS, 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C: 
W.    H.   &   0.  H.   MORRISON. 

1865. 


Bntered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  by  TV.  H.  4  0.  H.  MoRRiseif,  in  the  Clerk's  OfBcs  of  tha 
District  Court  of  the  U.  S.  for  the  Dietrict  of  Columbia. 


(TEREOTrPEO    IT    M'AJLL   i   WITHIRSW,   WAIHINaTSN,    ».   «, 


THIS 

MEMORIAL  TRIBUTE 

10 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN, 

IS 

DEDICATED 

TO   THE 

AMERICAN  PEOPLE, 

AND  TO  THB 

FRIENDS    OF    OUR    COUNTRY, 

AND    OF   FREEDOM 

IN 

BVEBY  CLIMK. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  scenes  recorded  in  this  memorial  volume  form  the  most  wonderful  and 
instructive  chapter  in  human  history.  They  vibrated  mournfully  through 
the  sensibilities  of  every  American  heart,  and  through  all  the  civilized  and 
Christian  nations  of  the  world.  It  is,  therefore,  of  the  highest  importance  that 
their  permanent  record  should  possess  the  dignity  and  value  of  historic  truth  and 
accuracy.     Such  is  this  volume. 

In  its  preparation  the  design  was  to  reproduce,  in  a  condensed  and  connected 
form,  from  the  public  journals  of  Washington  and  of  the  cities  through  which 
the  illustrious  dead  was  conveyed  to  his  burial  place,  the  graphic  pen-pictures 
painted  by  the  accomplished  reporters  of  the  public  press.  Those  who  may 
recognize  their  special  part  in  the  scenes  of  the  solemn  drama  will  feel  a  grate- 
ful pleasure  that  they  have  assisted  to  weave  a  perennial  wreath  to  lay  upon 
the  tomb  of  the  honored  dead,  which  will  live  forever  in  fragrant  freshness, 
to  bless  the  memory  and  exalt  the  virtues  of  ABEAnAM  Lincoln,  the  martyred 
President  of  the  United  States. 

The  record  of  the  official  action  of  the  National  Government,  civil  and  mili- 
tary, and  the  tributes  of  the  States,  civic  bodies,  and  foreign  nations,  form  an 
interesting  part  of  the  volume. 

The  labor  of  the  compiler  has  been  performed  with  much  care,  and  it  is 
a  gratification  to  him  to  insert  the  following  from  eminent  gentlemen,  intimate 
friends  of  the  late  President,  who  examined  the  advance  sheets  : 

"  Your  work  is  accurate  and  complete.  You  have  given  to  the  American 
people  a  souvenir  which,  I  am  sure,  they  will  fondly  cherish.  Your  beautiful 
T3IBUTE  will  no  doubt  be  highly  appreciated  by  the  national  authorities,  and 
especially  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  under  whose  immediate  direction  the  fune- 
ral honors  were  paid  to  the  illustrious  deceased,  and  by  whom  nothing  was 
omitted  that  could  add  to  the  dignity  and  solemnity  of  the  memorable  pa- 
geant." Another  adds:  "I  regard  the  record  as  valuable  and  interesting  for 
present  and  future  ages."  One  of  the  private  secretaries  of  the  late  President, 
who  examined  its  pages  in  the  Executive  Mansion,  wrote:  "  I  am  glad  that 
this  compilation  has  been  made,  and  doubt  not  the  above  commendations  are 
well  deserved." 

The  compiler  has  been  a  resident  at  the  capital  of  the  nation  for  more  than 
three  years  past,  witnessed  the  public  acts  and  scenes  of  President  Lincoln's 
administration,  had  several  interesting  interviews  with  him,  and  mingled  in 
the  solemn  ceremonies  of  his  funeral. 

■Washington,  D.  C,  June,  1865. 


MEMORABLE  DAYS  AND  EVENTS  PRECEDING 
THE  PRESIDENT'S  DEATH. 


Abraham  Lincoln  closed  and  crowned  his  illustrious  life  by 
a  martyr's  death,  on  the  morning  of  the  15th  of  April,  1865. 
Preceding  the  tragical  scene  in  which  he  passed  from  the 
highest  seat  of  human  power  and  grandeur  to  the  grave,  memo- 
rable events  had  transpired  in  tlie  history  of  the  country.  The 
national  Government,  after  four  years  of  stern  and  fearful  con- 
flict, was  triumphant  over  a  gigantic  rebellion,  and  the  nation 
was  in  the  midst  of  scenes  of  universal  rejoicings,  when  the 
sudden  and  startling  death  of  President  Lincoln  spread  like 
appalling  darkness  over  all  the  land.  The  nation  was  bowed 
into  the  profoundest  grief,  and  tears,  like  showers  of  rain,  were 
the  symbols  of  its  sorrow.  The  Republic  loved  him  as  its 
father,  and  honored  and  revered  him  as  its  preserver  and 
saviour. 

His  integrity,  sagacity,  unselfish  patriotism,  love  of  universal 
liberty,  impartial  justice,  his  honesty  and  fidelity,  his  magna- 
nimity and  prudence,  his  moderation  and  sublime  perseverance, 
his  private  virtues  and  eminent  public  services,  his  lofty  courage 
and  loftier  faith  in  God  and  in  the  final  triumph  of  right,  and 
his  wise  and  successful  administration  of  the  government,  in 
the  most  critical  and  eventful  period  of  its  history,  had  secured 
to  him  the  abiding  confidence  and  affection  of  the  American 
people.  He  was  re-elected  to  the  Presidency  in  November, 
1864,  by  a  popular  vote,  and  in  the  Electoral  College  by  ma- 
jorities unprecedented  in  the  political  history  of  the  country, 
since  the  days  of  Washington.     No  man  imagined  what  a  hold 


he  had  npon  the  national  heart  until  that  election.  The  reve- 
lation of  popular  feeling  was  sublime  and  wonderful.  It  was 
a  grand  and  spontaneous  tribute  to  character,  without  a 
parallel  in  human  history, 

HIS  SECOND   INAUGURATION 

Transpired  on  the  Fourth  of  March,  1865.  He  stood  on  the 
eastern  portico  of  the  Capitol,  and  in  the  presence  of  many 
thousands  of  his  fellow-citizens  took  the  oath  of  office.  At  the 
request  of  Chief  Justice  Chase,  who  administered  the  oath,  D. 
W.  Middleton,  Clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  handed  an  open  Bible  to  the  President,  who  laid  both 
his  hands  upon  it,  and  slowly  and  solemnly  repeated  the  words 
of  the  oath,  first  pronounced  by  the  Chief  Justice,  viz  :  "  I, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  do  solemnly  sivear  that  I  loill  faithfully  exe- 
cute the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States,  and  icill  to  the 
test  of  my  ability  pi^eserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Constitidion 
of  the  United  States."    "  So  help  me  God." 

The  President  then  reverently  pressed  his  lips  upon  the  sacred 
pages,  and  handed  the  Bible  back  to  Mr.  Middleton,  who 
instantly  marked  the  verses  touched  by  the  President's  lips. 
On  examination,  he  found  them  to  be  the  26th  and  27th  verses 
of  the  fifth  chapter  of  Isaiah,  commencing  "  And  he  will  lift  up  an 
ensign  to  the  nations,"  &c.  The  chapter  has  a  peculiar  fitness 
to  the  times,  and  contains  in  many  of  its  declarations  a  pro- 
phetic description  and  doom  of  the  leaders  of  the  great  rebel- 
lion, who  have,  verily,  *'  called  evil  good  and  good  evil,"  and 
"  put  darkness  for  light,  and  light  for  darkness." 

The  Bible  thus  opened  and  used  for  the  inauguration  was 
handed  to  the  wife  of  the  President,  who  will  doubtless  pre- 
serve it  as  a  sacred  family  memorial  of  that  most  solemn  and 
impressive  scene. 

The  morning  of  the  day  on  which  he  was  inaugurated  was 
overcast  with  leaden  clouds,  and  nature  wore  a  sombre  hue. 
But  at  the  moment  the  President  began  to  pronounce  his  ad- 
dress the  clouds  dispersed,  and  the  sun  came  brightly  out,  as 
if  to  symbolize  a  peaceful  and  prosperous  future  to  the  Presi- 
dent and  tlie  Republic. 


In  a  calm  and  impressive  manner  he  delivered  his  address, 
which  was  listened  to  with  profound  attention.  It  is  his  last 
official  State  paper  addressed  to  his  countrymen,  and  will  now 
be  read  and  admired  with  new  interest  by  the  American  people 
and  the  christian  nations  of  the  earth.    It  is  as  follows  : 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

Fellow-Countbtmen:  At  this  second  appearing  to  take  the  oath  of  the 
presidential  office,  there  is  less  occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  was 
at  first.  Then,  a  statement,  somewhat  in  detail,  of  a  course  to  be  pursued, 
seemed  fitting  and  proper.  Now,  at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during 
which  public  declarations  have  been  constantly  called  forth  on  every  point  and 
phase  of  the  great  contest  which  still  absorbs  the  attention  and  engrosses  the 
energies  of  the  nation,  little  that  is  new  could  be  presented.  The  progress  of 
our  arms,  upon  which  all  else  chiefly  depends,  is  as  well  known  to  the  public  as 
to  myself;  and  it  is,  I  trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and  encouraging  to  all. 
"With  high  hope  for  the  future,  no  prediction  in  regard  to  it  is  ventured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years  ago,  all  thoughts  were  anx- 
iously directed  to  an  impending  civil  war.  All  dreaded  it — all  sought  to  avert 
it.  While  the  inaugural  address  was  being  delivered  from  this  place,  devoted 
altogether  to  saving  the  Union  without  war,  insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city 
seeking  to  destroy  it  without  war — seeking  to  dissolve  the  Union  and  divide 
effects  by  negotiation.  Both  parties  deprecated  war ;  but  one  of  them  would 
make  war  rather  than  let  the  nation  survive;  and  the  other  would  accept  war 
rather  than  let  it  perish.    And  the  war  came. 

One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored  slaves,  not  distributed  gene- 
rally over  the  Union,  but  localized  in  the  southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves 
constituted  a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All  knew  that  this  interest 
was,  somehow,  the  cause  of  the  war.  To  strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend 
this  interest  was  the  object  for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend  the  Union, 
even  by  war ;  while  the  government  claimed  no  right  to  do  more  than  to  re- 
strict the  territorial  enlargement  of  it.  Neither  party  expected  for  the  war 
the  magnitude  or  the  duration  which  it  has  already  attained.  Neither  an- 
ticipated that  the  caitse  of  the  conflict  might  cease  with,  or  even  before,  the  con- 
flict itself  should  cease.  Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and  a  result  less  fun- 
damental and  astounding.  Both  read  the  same  Bible  and  pray  to  the  same 
God;  and  each  invokes  His  aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem  strange  that 
any  men  should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in  wringing  their  bread 
from  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces;  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not 
judged.  The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be  answered — that  of  neither  has  been 
answered  fully.  The  Almighty  has  His  own  purposes.  "Woe  unto  the  worFd 
because  of  offences!  for  it  must  needs  be  that  offences  come ;  but  woe  to  that 
man  by  whom  the  offence  cometh."  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery 
is  one  of  those  offences  which,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  must  needs  come,  but 
which,  having  continued  through  His  appointed  lime,  He  now  wills  to  remove, 


8 

and  that  He  gives  to  both  north  and  south  this  terrible  war  as  the  woe  due  to 
those  by  whom  the  offence  came ,  shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure  from  those 
divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living  God  always  ascribe  to  Him? 
Fondly  do  we  hope— fervently  do  we  pray— that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war 
may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the 
wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil 
shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid 
by  another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still 
it  must  be  said,  "  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  alto- 
gether." 

With  malice  toward  none ;  with  charity  for  all ;  with  firmness  in  the  right, 
as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in ; 
to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  bat- 
tle, and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphan — to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and 
cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves,  and  with  all  nations. 

This  address  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  hearts  of  the 
American  people  and  of  England.  The  British  Standard 
speaks  of  it  as  "  the  most  remarkable  thing  of  the  sort  ever 
pronounced  by  any  President  of  the  United  States,  from  the  first 
day  until  now.  Its  Alpha  and  its  Omega  is  Almighty  God,  the 
God  of  justice  and  the  Father  of  mercies,  who  is  working  out 
the  purposes  of  his  love.  It  is  invested  with  a  dignity  and 
pathos  which  lift  it  high  above  everything  of  the  kind,  whether 
in  the  Old  World  or  the  New.  The  whole  thing  puts  us  in 
mind  of  the  best  men  of  the  English  commonwealth  ;  there  is 
in  fact  much  of  the  old  prophet  about  it." 

Mr.  Gladstone,  the  ablest  and  most  eloquent  of  living  Eng- 
lish statesmen,  said  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  address  on  his  inaugura- 
tion showed  a  moral  elevation  which  commanded  the  respect  of 
every  right  feeling  man.  "  I  am  taken  captive  by  so  striking 
an  utterance  as  this.  I  see  in  it  the  effect  of  sharp  trial,  when 
rightly  borne,  to  raise  men  to  a  higher  level  of  thought  and 
feeling  than  they  could  otherwise  reach.  It  is  by  cruel  suffer- 
ing that  nations  are  born  to  a  better  life  ;  and  to  individuals, 
of  course,  a  like  experience  produces  a  like  result." 

In  this  country  two  leading  journals,  one  political  and  the 
Other  religious,  spoke  of  the  inaugural  address  as  follows  : 

It  is  such  a  speech  to  the  world  as  a  Christian  statesman  would  gladly  hava 
his  last — earnest,  humane,  truly  but  not  technically  religious,  filled  with  forgive- 
ness and  good  will. 


When  generations  have  passed  away,  and  the  unhappy  ■wounds  of  this  war 
are  healed,  and  the  whole  nation  is  united  on  a  basis  of  universal  liberty,  our 
posterity  will  read  the  dying  words  of  the  great  Emancipator  and  leader  of  the 
people  with  new  sympathy  and  reverence,  thanking  God  that  so  honest  and  so 
pure  a  man,  so  true  a  friend  of  the  oppressed,  and  so  genuine  a  patriot,  guided 
the  nation  in  the  time  of  its  trial,  and  prepared  the  final  triumph  which  he  was 
never  allowed  to  see. 

It  is  the  most  truthful,  penitential,  and  Christian  that  a  ruler  ever  addressed 
to  his  people.  There  is  the  clearest  recognition  of  the  divine  will,  the  humblest 
prostration  before  his  offended  goodness,  the  amplest  confession  of  the  righteous- 
ness of  his  punishments,  the  largest  beneficence  to  our  malicious  foes. 

That  dying  speech  from  the  national  throne  will  be  read  with  wet  eyes  by 
our  children's  children.  As  the  farewell  address  of  Washington  is  still  cherished 
by  the  nation,  so  will  this  pathetic  confession  of  national  sin  and  resolute  purpose 
to  labor  for  its  extinction  be  admiringly  perused  by  our  latest  generations.  It 
lacks  no  element  of  perfection.  So  short  that  he  that  runs  may  read  it ;  so 
simple  that  the  most  childish  can  understand  it;  so  statesmanlike  in  its  enuncia- 
tion of  principles  that  the  rulers  of  the  world  can  profitably  study  it;  so 
religious  that  the  most  pious  hearts  can  find  in  it  holiest  nutriment ;  so  philan- 
thropic that  largest  souls  may  grow  larger  in  its  inspiring  air  ;  so  clement  that 
the  hardest  heart  cannot  but  melt  in  its  perusal — it  is  the  consummate  flower 
of  Executive  orations. 

In  the  evening  of  the  inauguration  day  the  President  held 
the  customary  public  reception.  No  President  ever  received  a 
more  popular  and  affectionate  tribute  of  respect  than  did 
President  Lincoln  on  that  night.  Foreign  ministers,  members 
of  the  Cabinet,  members  of  Congress,  Governors  of  States,  and 
vast  multitudes  of  his  fellow-citizens,  including  representatives 
from  the  race  he  had  emancipated,  were  present  to  pay  their 
congratulations.  The  scenes  of  the  day  and  evening  had  a 
cheering  influence  upon  him,  and  girded  him  anew  for  the  great 
work  before  him.  They  were  as  borders  of  light  to  a  dark 
and  sudden  night  of  sorrow  to  himself  and  the  nation. 


VISIT  OF  THE  PRESIDENT  TO  THE  ARMY 

AND  EICHMOND,  AND  HIS  EETURN. 


During  the  last  week  of  March,  1865,  President  Lincoln 
made  a  visit  to  the  Potomac  Army,  then  before  Richmond.  It 
was  on  the  eve  of  those  successful  movements  which  resulted 
in  the  fall  of  Richmond  and  the  surrender  of  the  rebel  army 
under  Lee.  He  held  an  important  conference  with  Lieutenant 
General  Grant,  and  Generals  Sherman  and  Meade  and  other 
distinguished  ofiBcers,  and  so  hopeful  was  the  military  situa- 
tion that,  on  the  2d  of  April,  he  telegraphed  to  the  Secretary 
of  War  that  "  all  noio  looks  highly  favorable f  and  again,  on 
the  same  day,  "  oR  seems  well  with  us."  On  the  evening  of 
the  3d  of  April  the  President  communicated  to  the  War  De- 
partment and  the  country  that  Petersburg  and  Richmond  had 
fallen. 

On  Monday,  the  4th  of  April,  he  passed  into  the  city  of 
Richmond  without  any  parade  of  triumph,  attended  only  by  a 
small  guard,  and  received  an  enthusiastic  welcome  from  the 
army  and  from  a  large  portion  of  the  citizens.  While  in  Rich- 
mond he  was  waited  upon  by  Judge  Campbell,  one  of  the  lead- 
ers of  the  rebellion,  and  formerly  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  who  said  to  the  President  : 

I  had  an  interview  with  Jefferson  Davis,  Benjamin,  and  Breckinridge  just  be- 
fore they  left,  and  said  to  them:  "  The  military  power  of  the  Confederacy  is 
broken.  Its  independence  is  hopeless.  It  only  remains  for  us  to  make  the 
best  terms  we  can.  The  trouble  is,  the  President  of  the  United  States  cannot 
enter  into  negotiations  with  you ;  but  he  does  recognize  the  States,  and  can 
confer  with  their  regular  authorities.    Under  tho  doctrine  of  State  rights,  so 

11 


12 

tiniversally  held  in  the  South,  the  troops  from  Virginia — the  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment being  a  fugitive — will  recognize  the  right  of  the  Virginia  Legislature 
to  control  them."  If  you,  Mr.  Lincoln,  will  permit  that  body  to  convene,  it 
will  doubtless  recall  them  from  the  field. 

Campbell's  arguments  for  this  course  "were  many  and  specious. 
The  President  was  actuated  by  his  absorbing  desire  for  peace 
to  listen  attentively;  but  he  said  : 

"Judge  Campbell,  let  us  have  no  misunderstanding.  I  will  give  you  once 
more,  in  black  and  white,  my  only  terms." 

And  he  immediately  wrote  the  same  propositions  which  Mr. 
Seward  took  from  him  to  the  Hampton  Roads  Conference : 

I.  The  territorial  integrity  of  the  Republic. 

II.  No  retraction  of  Executive  or  Congressional  action  on  the  subject  of 
slavery. 

III.  No  armistice. 

To  these  he  added  a  fourth  condition,  that  if  leading  Con- 
federates still  persisted  in  the  war,  now  it  had  become  so  utterly 
hopeless,  their  property  should  be  relentlessly  confiscated. 

Campbell  prayed  for  a  modification  of  the  third  article,  but 
the  President  was  immovable. 

"  We  will  not  negotiate  with  men  as  long  as  they  are  fighting  against  us. 
The  last  election  established  this  as  the  deliberate  determination  of  the  coun- 
try." 

Remaining  a  day  and  night  in  Richmond,  the  President  re- 
turned to  City  Point  on  Saturday,  the  8th  of  April,  and  visited 
the  hospitals,  where  he  was  received  with  joy  and  enthusiasm 
by  the  brave  and  invalid  soldiers.  On  the  evening  of  the  same 
day  he  embarked  for  Washington,  and  arrived  in  excellent 
health  and  spirits,  on  the  evening  of  the  9th  of  April. 

Among  those  significant  things  which  often  look  like  inspira- 
tions, that  frequently  attend  the  latter  days  of  noted  men,  is 
an  affecting  fact,  as  is  said,  connected  with  the  deceased  Presi- 
dent. While  on  liis  recent  trip  to  Richmond  he  amused  him- 
self with  reading  Shakspcare,  and  often  to  the  friends  about 
him.  It  is  a  little  strange  that  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  one  such  occa- 
sion, should  have  twice  read  aloud  and  called  the  marked  atten- 


13 

tion  of  those  about  him  to  the  well-known  lines  which  Macbeth, 
in  his  remorse,  utters  about  the  traitorously  murdered  Duncan  : 

"Duncan  is  in  his  grave ; 
After  life's  fitful  fever,  he  sleeps  well ; 
Treason  has  done  its  worst;  nor  steel,  nor  poison, 
Malice  domestic,  foreign  levy,  nothing 
Can  touch  him  further." 

"  The  very  day  after  his  return  from  Richmond,"  says  Secre- 
tary Stanton, "  I  passed  with  him  some  of  the  happiest  moments 
of  my  life  ;  our  hearts  beat  with  exultation  at  the  victories, 
because  we  believed  they  would  bring  the  speedy  return  of  an 
honorable  peace,  and  the  re-establishment  of  the  authority  of 
the  Constitution  and  the  laws  over  the  whole  United  States." 

The  five  days  preceding  the  President's  death  were  memo- 
rable in  the  history  of  the  nation.  The  successive,  brilliant 
victories  of  the  year  in  all  parts  of  the  country  culminated  in 
the  fall  of  Richmond,  and  the  surrender  of  the  rebel  army, 
with  General  Lee  and  ofiQcers,  to  Lieutenant  General  Grant. 
The  joy  of  the  people  at  these  grand  results  was  bound- 
less. In  all  the  fulness  and  freshness  of  grateful,  enthusiastic 
hearts,  the  people  manifested  their  joy  that  the  rebellion  was 
at  an  end,  and  that  peace  and  fraternal  relations  would  soon 
be  re-established  among  all  the  States. 

In  commemoration  of  these  great  events,  the  cities,  towns, 
and  villages  throughout  the  country  were  brilliantly  illumin- 
ated, as  symbols  of  the  universal  joy.  Among  the  grandest  of 
these  scenes  was  the  one  at  the  Capital.  Most  of  the  private 
residences  and  all  of  the  public  buildings  were  beautifully  illu- 
minated. Over  the  western  portico  of  the  magnificent  Capitol 
was  inscribed  the  motto,  over  which  waved  a  beautiful  banner, 
"  This  is  the  Lord's  doing ;  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes  ;''  and 
over  the  door  of  the  State  Department  was  read  the  following: 
"  The  Union  saved  by  faith  in  the  Constitution,  faith  in  the 
people,  and  trust  in  God." 

After  the  President's  return  from  Richmond  a  large  assem- 
blage of  citizens,  desiring  to  congratulate  him  on  these  decisive 
and  important  results,  met  at  the  President's  mansion  on  the 


14 

evening  of  the  11th  of  April,  and  from  an  upper  window,  now 
historic,  he  made  the  following: 

ADDRESS  : 

We  meet  this  evening,  not  in  sorrow,  but  in  gladness  of  heart.  The  evacna- 
tion  of  Petersburg  and  Richmond,  and  the  surrender  of  the  principal  insurgent 
army,  gave  hope  of  a  righteous  and  speedy  peace,  whose  joyous  expression 
cannot  be  restrained.  In  the  midst  of  this,  however.  He  from  whom  all  bless- 
ings flow  must  not  be  forgotten.  A  call  for  a  national  thanksgiving  is  being 
prepared,  and  will  be  duly  promulgated.  Nor  must  those  whose  harder  part 
gives  us  the  cause  of  rejoicing  be  overlooked.  Their  honors  must  not  be  par- 
celled out  with  others.  I  myself  was  near  the  front,  and  had  the  high  pleasure 
of  transmitting  much  of  the  good  news  to  you ;  but  no  part  of  the  honor,  for 
plan  or  execution,  is  mine.  To  General  Grant,  his  skilful  officers,  and  brave 
men,  all  belongs.  The  gallant  navy  stood  ready,  but  was  not  in  reach  to  take 
active  part. 

By  these  recent  successes  the  rein  augur  ation  of  the  national  authority — recon- 
struction— which  has  had  a  large  share  of  thought  from  the  first,  is  pressed 
much  more  closely  upon  our  attention.  It  is  fraught  with  great  difficulty. 
Unlike  the  case  of  a  war  between  independent  nations,  there  is  no  authorized 
organ  for  us  to  treat  with.  No  one  man  has  authority  to  give  up  the  rebellion 
for  any  other  man.  "We  simply  must  begin  with,  and  mould  from,  disorganized 
and  discordant  elements.  Nor  is  it  a  small  additional  embarrassment  that  we, 
the  loyal  people,  differ  among  ourselves  as  to  the  mode,  manner,  and  measure 
of  reconstruction. 

As  a  general  rule,  I  abstain  from  reading  the  reports  of  attacks  upon  myself, 
wishing  not  to  be  provoked  by  that  to  which  I  cannot  properly  offer  an  answer. 
In  spite  of  this  precaution,  however,  it  comes  to  my  knowledge  that  I  am  much 
censured  from  some  supposed  agency  in  setting  up  and  seeking  to  sustain  the 
new  State  government  of  Louisiana.  In  this  I  have  done  just  so  much  and  no 
more  than  the  public  knows. 

In  the  annual  message  of  December,  1863,  and  accompanying  proclamation, 
I  presented  a  plan  of  reconstruction,  (as  the  phrase  goes,)  which  I  promised,  if 
adopted  by  any  State,  should  be  acceptable  to  and  sustained  by  the  Executive 
Government  of  the  nation.  I  distinctly  stated  that  this  was  not  the  only  plan 
which  might  possibly  be  acceptable;  and  I  also  distinctly  protested  that  the 
Executive  claimed  no  right  to  say  when  or  whether  members  should  be  admitted 
to  seats  in  Congress  from  such  States.  This  plan  was,  in  advance,  submitted 
to  the  then  Cabinet,  and  distinctly  approved  by  every  member  of  it.  One  of  them 
suggested  that  I  should  then  and  in  that  connection  apply  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  to  the  heretofore  excepted  parts  of  Virginia  and  Louisiana  ;  that 
I  should  drop  the  suggestion  about  apprenticeship  for  freed  people,  and  that  I 
should  omit  the  protest  against  my  own  power  in  regard  to  the  admission  of 
members  of  Congress  ;  but  even  he  approved  every  part  and  parcel  of  the  plan 
which  has  since  been  employed  or  touched  by  the  action  of  Louisiana.  The 
new  constitution  of  Louisiana,  declaring  emancipation  for  the  whole  State, 


16 

practically  applies  the  proclamation  to  the  part  previously  excepted.  It  does 
not  adopt  apprenticeship  for  freed  people,  and  it  is  silent,  as  it  could  not  well 
be  otherwise,  about  the  admission  of  members  to  Congress.  So  that,  as  it  ap- 
plies to  Louisiana,  every  member  of  the  Cabinet  fully  approved  the  plan.  The 
message  went  to  Congress,  and  I  received  many  commendations  of  the  plan, 
written  and  verbal,  and  not  a  single  objection  to  it  from  any  professed  Eman- 
cipationist came  to  my  knowledge  until  after  the  news  reached  Washington  that 
the  people  of  Louisiana  had  begun  to  move  in  accordance  with  it.  From  about 
July,  1862,  I  had  corresponded  with  different  persons  supposed  to  be  interested, 
seeking  a  reconstruction  of  a  State  government  for  Louisiana.  When  the  mes- 
sage of  1863,  with  the  plan  before  mentioned,  reached  New  Orleans,  General 
Banks  wrote  me  he  was  confident  that  the  people,  with  his  military  co-opera- 
tion, would  reconstruct,  substantially,  on  that  plan.  I  wrote  him  and  some  of 
them  to  try  it.     They  tried  it,  and  the  result  is  known. 

Such  only  has  been  my  agency  in  getting  up  the  Louisiana  government.  As 
to  sustaining  it,  my  promise  is  out,  as  before  stated.  But,  as  bad  promises  are 
better  broken  than  kept,  I  shall  treat  this  as  a  bad  promise,  and  break  it  when- 
ever I  shall  be  convinced  that  keeping  it  is  adverse  to  the  public  interest ;  but 
I  have  not  yet  been  so  convinced. 

I  have  been  shown  a  letter  on  this  subject,  supposed  to  be  an  able  one,  in 
which  the  writer  expresses  regret  that  my  mind  has  not  seemed  to  be  definitely 
fixed  on  the  question  whether  the  seceded  States,  so  called,  are  in  the  Union  or 
out  of  it.  It  would,  perhaps,  add  astonishment  to  his  regret  were  he  to  learn 
that  since  I  have  found  professed  Union  men  endeavoring  to  make  that  ques- 
tion, I  have  purposely  forborne  any  public  expression  upon  it.  As  appears  to 
me,  that  question  has  not  been,  nor  yet  is,  a  practically  material  one,  and  that 
any  discussion  of  it,  while  it  thus  remains  practically  immaterial,  could  have  no 
effect  other  than  a  mischievous  one  of  dividing  our  friends.  As  yet,  whatever 
it  may  hereafter  become,  that  question  is  bad  as  the  basis  of  a  controversy,  and 
good  for  nothing  at  all — a  merely  pernicious  abstraction.  We  all  agree  that 
the  seceded  States,  so  called,  are  out  of  their  proper  practical  relation  with  the 
Union ;  and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  government,  civil  and  military,  in  regard 
to  those  States,  is  to  again  get  them  into  that  proper  practical  relation.  I 
believe  it  is  not  only  possible,  but  in  fact  easier  to  do  this  without  deciding,  or 
even  considering,  whether  these  States  have  ever  been  out  of  the  Union,  than 
with  it.  Finding  themselves  safely  at  home,  it  would  be  utterly  immaterial 
whether  they  had  ever  been  abroad.  Let  us  all  join  in  doing  the  acts  necessaiy 
to  restoring  the  proper  practical  relations  between  these  States  and  the  Union  ; 
and  each  forever  after  innocently  indulge  his  own  opinion  whether,  in  doing 
the  acts,  he  brought  the  States  from  without  into  the  Union,  or  only  gave  them 
proper  assistance,  they  never  having  been  out  of  it. 

The  amount  of  constituency,  so  to  speak,  on  which  the  new  Louisiana  govern- 
ment rests,  would  be  more  satisfactory  to  all  if  it  contained  fifty,  thirty,  or  even 
twenty  thousand,  instead  of  only  about  twelve  thousand,  as  it  really  does.  It 
is  also  unsatisfactory  to  some,  that  the  elective  franchise  is  not  given  to  the  col- 
ored man.  I  would  myself  prefer  that  it  were  now  conferred  on  the  very  in- 
telligent, and  on  those  who  serve  our  cause  as  soldiers.    Still  the  question  ia 


16 

not  'whether  the  Louisiana  government,  as  it  stands,  is  quite  all  that  is  desirable. 
The  question  is,  "  Will  it  be  wiser  to  take  it  as  it  is,  and  help  co  improve  it,  or 
reject  and  disperse  it?  Can  Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper  practical  relation 
with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding  her  new  State  govern- 
ment?" 

Some  twelve  thousand  voters  in  the  heretofore  slave  State  of  Louisiana  have 
sworn  allegiance  to  the  Union ;  assumed  to  be  the  rightful  political  power  of  the 
State ;  held  elections  ;  organized  a  free  government ;  adopted  a  free  State  constitu- 
tion, giving  the  benefit  of  public  schools  equally  to  black  and  white,  and  empower- 
ing the  Legislature  to  confer  the  elective  franchise  upon  the  colored  man.  Their 
Legislature  has  already  voted  to  ratify  the  constitutional  amendment,  recently 
passed  by  Congress,  abolishing  slavery  throughout  the  nation.  These  twelve 
thousand  persons  are  thus  fully  committed  to  the  Union,  and  to  perpetual  free- 
dom in  the  States — committed  to  the  very  things,  and  nearly  all  the  things, 
the  nation  wants — and  they  ask  the  nation's  recognition  and  its  assistance  to 
make  good  that  committal. 

Now,  if  we  reject  and  spurn  them,  we  do  our  utmost  to  disorganize  and  dis- 
perse them.  We  in  effect  say  to  the  white  man,  "  You  are  worthless,  or  worse ; 
we  will  neither  help  you  nor  be  helped  by  you."  To  the  blacks  we  say,  "  This 
cup  of  liberty  which  these,  your  old  masters,  hold  to  your  lips,  we  will  dash 
from  you,  and  leave  you  to  the  chances  of  gathering  the  spilled  and  scattered 
contents,  in  some  vague  and  undefined  when,  where,  and  how."  If  this  course, 
discouraging  and  paralyzing  both  white  and  black,  has  any  tendency  to  bring 
Louisiana  into  proper  practical  relations  with  the  Union,  I  have,  so  far,  been 
unable  to  perceive  it. 

If,  on  the  contrary,  we  recognize  and  sustain  the  new  government  of  Louisi- 
ana, the  converse  of  all  this  is  made  true.  We  encourage  the  hearts  and  nerve 
the  arms  of  the  twelve  thousand  to  adhere  to  their  work,  and  argue  for  it,  and 
proselyte  for  it,  and  fight  for  it,  and  feed  it,  and  grow  it,  and  ripen  it  to  a  com- 
plete success.  The  colored  man,  too,  seeing  all  united  for  him,  is  inspired  with 
vigilance,  and  energy,  and  daring,  to  the  same  end.  Grant  that  he  desires  the 
elective  franchise.  Will  he  not  attain  it  sooner  by  saving  the  already  advanced 
steps  toward  it  than  by  running  backward  over  them?  Concede  that  the  new 
government  of  Louisiana  is  only  to  what  it  should  be  as  the  egg  to  the  fowl; 
we  shall  sooner  have  the  fowl  by  hatching  the  egg  than  by  smashing  it. 

Again,  if  we  reject  Louisiana,  we  also  reject  our  vote  in  favor  of  the  pro- 
posed amendment  to  the  national  Constitution.  To  meet  this  proposition  it 
has  been  argued  that  no  more  than  three-fourths  of  those  States  which  have 
not  attempted  secession  are  necessary  to  validly  ratify  the  amendment.  I  do 
not  commit  myself  against  this,  further  than  to  say  that  such  a  ratification 
would  be  questionable,  and  sure  to  be  persistently  questioned  ;  while  a  ratifi- 
cation by  three-fourths  of  all  the  States  would  be  unquestioned  and  unques- 
tionable. 

I  repeat  the  question :  "  Can  Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper  practical  re- 
lation with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding  her  new  State 
government?"  What  has  been  said  of  Louisiana  will  apply  generally  to  other 
Btates.    And  yet  so  great  peculiarities  pertain  to  each  State ;  and  such  impor- 


17 

taut  and  sudden  changes  occur  in  the  same  State ;  and,  withal,  so  new  and  un 
precedented  is  the  whole  case,  that  no  exclusive  and  inflexible  plan  can  safely 
be  prescribed  as  to  details  and  collaterals.     Such  exclusive  and  inflexible  plan 
would  surely  become  a  new  entanglement.    Important  principles  may  and  must 
be  inflexible. 

In  the  present  situation,  as  the  phrase  goes,  it  may  be  my  duty  to  make  some 
new  announcement  to  the  people  of  the  South.  I  am  considering,  and  shall 
not  fail  to  act  when  satisfied  that  action  will  be  proper. 

The  speech  was  applauded  throughout  by  emphatic  sentences 
and  loud  cheering. 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  LAST  DAY  ON  EARTH. 


The  following  incidents  of  the  last  day  of  the  President's 
life  have  now  a  touching  interest : 

His  son,  Captain  Lincoln,  breakfasted  with  him  on  Friday 
morning,  having  just  returned  from  the  capitulation  of  Lee,  and 
the  President  passed  a  happy  hour  listening  to  the  details  of 
that  event.  While  at  breakfast  he  learned  that  Speaker  Colfax 
was  in  the  house,  and  sent  word  that  he  wished  to  see  him  im- 
mediately in  the  reception  room.  He  conversed  with  Mr. 
Colfax  nearly  an  hour  about  his  future  policy  as  to  the  rebel- 
lion, which  he  was  about  to  submit  to  the  Cabinet. 

Afterward  he  had  an  interview  with  Mr.  Hale,  Minister  to 
Spain,  and  several  Senators  and  Representatives. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Cabinet,  General  Grant  was  present, 
and,  in  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  and  important  Cabinet 
meetings  held  since  his  first  inauguration,  the  future  policy  of 
the  Administration  was  harmoniously  and  unanimously  agreed 
on.  When  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  separated.  Secretary 
Stanton  said  he  felt  that  the  Government  was  stronger  than  at 
any  previous  period  since  the  rebellion  commenced.  In  the 
afternoon  Mr.  Lincoln  had  a  long  and  pleasant  interview  with 
Governor  Oglesby,  Senator  Yates,  and  other  leading  citizens 
of  his  State. 

In  the  evening  Mr.  Colfax  called  again,  at  his  request,  and 
Mr.  Ashmun,  of  Massachusetts,  who  presided  over  the  Chicago 
Convention  of  1860,  was  present.  To  them  he  spoke  of  his 
visit  to  Richmond  ;  and  when  they  stated  that  there  was  much 
uneasiness  at  the  North  while  he  was  at  the  rebel  capital,  for 

19 


20 

fear  some  traitor  might  shoot  him,  he  replied,  jocularly,  that 
"  he  would  have  been  alarmed  himself  if  any  other  person  had 
been  President  and  gone  there  ;  but  he,  hiinself,  did  not  feel  in 
any  danger  whatever." 

Conversing  on  a  matter  of  business  with  Mr.  Ashmun,  he 
made  a  remark  at  which  he  saw  Mr.  Ashmun  was  surprised, 
and  immediately,  with  his  well-known  kindness  of  heart,  said, 
'•  You  did  not  understand  me,  Ashmun  ;  I  did  not  mean  what 
you  inferred,  and  will  take  it  all  back,  and  apologize  for  it." 

He  afterwards  gave  Mr.  Ashmun  a  card  to  admit  himself  and 
friend  early  the  next  morning,  to  converse  further  about  the 
matter — the  last  writing  of  his  life ! 

Turning  to  Mr.  Colfax,  he  said,  "  You  are  going  with  Mrs. 
Lincoln  and  me  to  the  theatre,  I  hope  ;"  but  Mr.  Colfax  had 
other  engagements,  expecting  to  leave  the  city  the  next  morn- 
iusr.  He  then  said  to  Mr.  Colfax,  "  Senator  Sumner  has  the 
gavel  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  which  he  got  at  Richmond, 
to  hand  to  the  Secretary  of  War  ;  but  I  insisted  then  that  he 
must  give  it  to  you ;  and  you  tell  him  for  me  to  hand  it  over." 

Mr.  Ashmun  alluded  to  the  gavel,  which  he  still  had,  which 
he  used  at  the  Chicago  Convention.  The  President  and  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  who  was  also  in  tlie  parlor,  then  rose  to  go  to  the  thea- 
tre. It  was  half  an  hour  after  the  time  they  had  intended  to 
start,  and  they  spoke  about  waiting  half  an  hour  longer.  The 
President  went  with  reluctance,  as  General  Grant,  who  had 
been  advertised  as  well  as  himself  to  be  present  at  the  theatre, 
had  gone  north,  and  he  did  not  wish  the  people  to  be  disap- 
pointed. 

At  the  door  he  stopped  and  said,  "  Colfax,  do  not  forget  to 
tell  the  people  in  the  mining  regions,  as  you  pass  through  them, 
what  I  told  you  this  morning  about  their  development  when 
peace  comes  ;  and  I  will  telegraph  you  at  San  Francisco."  He 
shook  hands  with  both  gentlemen,  with  a  pleasant  good-bye, 
and  left  the  Executive  mansion,  never  to  return  to  it  alive. 

MR.  Lincoln's  last  autograph. 

At  eight  o'clock  on  Friday  night,  Hon.  George  Ashmun 
called  upon  the  President,  and  the  latter,  who  was  just  starting 


21 

for  the  theatre,   gave   Mr.  Ashmun  a  card,  upon  which  was 
written  the  following  words  : 

Allow  Mr.  Ashmun  and  friend  to  come  in  at  9  o'clock  A.  M.  to-morrow. 

A.  LINCOLN. 
Apbil  14, 1865. 

His  last  public  act  was  to  call  his  Cabinet  together,  at 
which  Secretary  Stanton  reports  that  the  subject  of  the  state 
of  the  country  and  the  prospect  of  a  speedy  peace  were  dis- ' 
cussed.  The  President  was  cheerful  and  hopeful,  and  spoke 
very  kindly  of  General  Lee  and  others  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
of  the  establishment  of  government  in  Virginia. 


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O 
O 


THREATS  OF  ASSASSINATION. 


After  Mr.  Lincoln's  election  in  1861,  private  and  public 
threats  were  made  in  different  States  of  the  South  that  he 
should  not  be  permitted  to  take  his  seat  as  President.  In  Bal- 
timore a  plot  was  discovered  to  assassinate  him  as  he  came 
through  on  his  way  to  Washington  to  be  inaugurated.  He  ar- 
rived in  safety  at  the  capital  on  the  23d  of  February,  1861, 
and  on  the  4th  of  March  was  inaugurated  the  sixteenth  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  day  before  his  inauguration,  Lieutenant  General 
Scott  wrote  to  Mr.  Seward  as  follows  :  "  He  hoped  in  a  day  or 
two  the  new  President  will  have  happily  passed  all  personal 
danger^  and  find  himself  installed  an  honored  successor  of  the 
great  Washington."  The  day  of  the  inauguration,  military 
precautions  were  taken  to  prevent  and  suppress  all  attempts  at 
violence,  and  the  President  was  safely  and  constitutionally  in- 
ducted into  his  office. 

The  following  statement  is  from  Mr.  Richardson,  on  the 
southern  threats  of  assassination.  He  was  a  correspondent  of 
a  leading  paper,  and  was  a  prisoner  in  the  South  for  eighteen 
months  : 

Oa  the  day  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  first  inauguration,  I  travelled  in  a  crowded  rail- 
way car  in  Mississippi  and  Louisiana.  While  the  train  was  stopping  and  con- 
versation could  be  heard  through  the  carriage,  some  one  alluded  to  the  event. 
Another  passenger  replied  :  "  I  hope  to  God  he  will  be  killed  before  he  takes  the 
oath."  A  third  said:  "I  have  wagered  a  new  hat  that  neither  he  nor  Hamlin 
will  ever  live  to  be  inaugurated."  Nearly  all  present  belonged  to  the  educated, 
wealthy,  slaveholding  class — the  class  which  originated  and  conducted  the  war. 
Several  expressed  approval  of  these  remarks ;  not  one  uttered  a  word  of  dissent. 

23 


24 

I  was  in  the  cotton  States  for  weeks  after  this,  and  the  subject  was  frequently 
alluded  to  in  my  presence.  I  heard  but  one  man  condemn  the  proposed  assas- 
sination, and  he  was  a  Unionist.  Again  and  again  leading  journals,  which 
were  called  reputable,  asked,  "  Is  there  no  Brutus  to  rid  the  world  of  this 
tyrant?"  Rewards  were  openly  proposed  for  the  President's  head.  If  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  then  been  murdered  in  Baltimore,  every  thorough  secession  journal 
in  the  South  would  have  expressed  its  approval,  directly  or  indirectly.  Of 
course,  I  do  not  believe  that  the  masses,  or  all  secessionists,  would  have  desired 
such  a  stain  upon  the  American  name;  but  even  then,  as  afterward,  when  they 
murdered  our  captured  soldiers,  and  starved,  froze,  and  shot  our  prisoners,  the 
men  who  led  and  controlled  the  rebels  appeared  deaf  to  humanity  and  to 
decency.  Charity  would  fain  hold  them  insane ;  but  there  was  too  much 
method  in  their  madness. 

In  the  month  of  March,  1864,  a  correspondent  of  the  same 
journal,  who  had  been  at  Richmond,  says  that  "  a  plan  had 
been  submitted  to  the  Rebel  War  Department  by  Colonel 
Margrave,  who  had  been  for  a  considerable  time  an  emissary 
in  the  North,  to  kidnap  President  Lincoln  and  carry  him  to 
Riclimond,  or  if  it  should  be  found  impossible  to  escape  with 
him  to  the  rebel  lines,  to  assassinate  him.  One  hundred  and 
fifty  picked  men  were  to  go  secretly  North,  and  take  quarters 
in  Washington,  Georgetown,  Baltimore,  and  Alexandria,  so  as 
to  be  able  to  communicate  daily  with  each  other  ;  and  upon  a 
day  fixed  by  their  leader,  were  to  assemble  in  Washington  for 
the  purpose  of  making  the  seizure.  The  President,  it  was 
claimed,  could  be  easily  seized  at  a  quiet  hour  at  the  White 
House,  or  in  going  to  or  returning  from  church.  The  Secre- 
tary of  War  thought  this  scheme  might  succeed,  but  he  doubted 
whether  such  a  proceeding  would  be  of  a  military  character, 
and  justifiable  under  the  laws  of  war.  He  promised,  however, 
to  consult  President  Davis  and  Mr.  Benjamin." 

In  the  summer  of  1862,  "a  club  or  society  of  wealthy  per- 
sons of  Richmond  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  fund 
for  this  purpose.  Circulars  were  sent  to  trust-worthy  citizens 
of  every  other  city  and  town  in  the  Confederacy  inviting  co- 
operation in  the  grand  undertaking,  and  an  immense  sum  of 
money  was  raised.  It  was  proposed,  when  all  was  ready,  to 
obtain  a  furlough  for  Moseby  and  make  him  leader  of  the  en- 
terprise." 

Mr.  Carpenter,  the  artist  who  painted  the  Proclamation  of 


25 

Freedom,  says  that  several  days  subsequent  to  its  publication 
lie  asked  Mr.  Lincoln  if  he  had  seen  the  above  statement.  He 
said  he  had  not,  nor  even  heard  of  it.  I  then,  at  his  request, 
gave  him  the  details.  We  were  walking  together  at  the  time, 
and  I  remember  distinctly  the  conversation.  After  I  had  con- 
cluded, he  smiled  incredulously,  and  said  :  "  Well,  even  if  true, 
I  do  not  see  what  the  rebels  would  gain  by  either  killing  or 
getting  possession  of  me.  I  am  but  a  single  individual,  and  it 
would  not  lielp  their  cause  or  make  the  least  difference  in  the 
progress  of  the  war.  Everything  would  go  right  on  just  the  same. 
Soon  after  I  was  nominated  at  Chicago,"  ho  continued,  "  I  be- 
gan to  receive  letters  threatening  my  life.  The  first  one  or 
two  made  me  uncomfortable,  but  I  came  at  length  to  look  for 
a  regular  installment  of  this  kind  of  correspondence  in  every 
week's  mail,  and  up  to  inauguration  day  I  was  in  the  constant 
receipt  of  such  letters,  and  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  even  to  re- 
ceive them  now  ;  but  they  have  ceased  to  give  me  any  appre- 
hension." I  expressed  some  surprise  at  this,  but  he  replied  in 
his  peculiar  way,  "  There  is  nothing  like  getting  used  to 
things."  Alas  !  that  the  nation  should  to-day  be  sitting  under 
the  shadow  of  the  great  crime — the  consummation  of  those  very 
threats — which  he  had  come  to  regard  so  lightly. 

Roger  A.  Pryor,  a  member  from  Virginia  in  the  Thirty-Sixth 
Congress,  and  for  some  time  editor  of  the  Daily  Union  in 
Washington  city,  said  shortly  before  Mr.  Lincoln's  election  in 
1860,  that,  "The  first  anti-slavery  President  loill  be  assassin- 
ated; and  if  no  other  hand  can  be  found  to  perform  that  duty, 
I  will  be  the  Brutus  that  will  plant  a  dagger  in  liis  heart." 

In  December,  1864,  a  citizen  of  Alabama  advertised  in  the 
Southern  papers  that,  "  If  the  citizens  of  the  Southern  Con- 
federacy will  furnish  me  (him)  with  the  cash,  or  good  securities, 
for  the  sum  of  one  million  dollars,  I  (he)  will  cause  the  lives  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  William  H.  Seward,  and  Andrew  Johnson 
to  be  taken  bv  the  first  of  March  next." — 1865. 

Colonel  R.  W.  Thompson,  of  Terre  Haute,  Indiana,  an  old 
friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  feeling  a  great  concern  for  his  safety,  on 
the  11th  of  last  March  wrote  to  John  D.  Defrees,  Superin- 


^  26 

tendent  of  Public  Printing  at  "Washington,  "wliom  lie  knew  to 
be  on  intimate  terms  with  the  President,  as  follows  : 

For  God's  sake  impress  Mr.  Lincoln  v/ith  the  idea  that  he  must  be  careful  of 
himself  and  watchful.  There  are  ten  thousand  ways  to  kill  him,  and  there  are 
thousands  malicious  enough  to  do  it.  A  hired  domestic  could  do  it;  and  how  fre- 
quently does  history  show  that  this  mode  of  getting  rid  of  a  man  has  been 
practiced. 

Only  a  few  days  before  the  President  went  to  Richmond,  Mr. 
Defrees  read  him  the  letter  of  Colonel  Thompson,  and  added 
his  own  apprehensions  of  danger  from  exposure.  The  Presi- 
dent replied  that  he  thought  his  friends  too  apprehensive — that 
he  had  no  feelings  of  the  sort. 

One  day  last  summer,  in  conversation  with  Mr.  Defrees,  who 
had  cautioned  him  against  exposing  himself  to  the  assassin  by 
his  going  to  and  returning  from  the  Soldiers'  Home,  he  re- 
marked that  he  had  received  many  anonymous  letters  threaten- 
ing his  life,  and  that  he  had  preserved  them.  He  then  walked 
to  his  private  cabinet  and  took  down  a  bundle  of  such  letters. 
"While  he  held  them  in  his  hand  Mr.  Seward  came  in,  and,  after 
understanding  the  subject  of  conversation,  remarked  that  he 
too  had  received  many  such  letters  for  years,  and  especially 
from  the  South,  while  a  member  of  the  Senate. 

The  possibility  that  he  might  be  assassinated  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  thought  of,  though  he  was  not  timid,  and  it  did  not  give 
him  a  moment's  uneasiness.  A  member  of  the  Cabinet  said 
one  day  to  him,  "  Mr.  Lincoln,  you  are  not  sufficiently  careful 
of  yourself.  There  are  bad  men  in  Washington  ;  did  it  ever 
occur  to  you  that  there  are  rebels  among  us  who  are  bad  enough 
to  attempt  your  life?"  Mr.  Lincoln  stepped  to  the  desk  and 
drew  from  a  pigeon-hole  a  package  of  letters.  "  There,"  said 
he,  "  every  one  of  these  contain  a  threat  to  assassinate  me.  I 
might  be  nervous  if  I  was  to  dwell  upon  the  subject,  but  I  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  are  opportunities  to  kill  me 
every  day  of  my  life  if  there  are  persons  disposed  to  do  it.  It 
is  not  possible  to  avoid  exposure  to  such  a  state,  and  I  shall 
not  trouble  myself  about  it." 

A  week  before  his  death,  General  Van  Allen,  of  New  York, 


27 

wrote  to  the  President  to  ask  liim  not  to  expose  his  life  unneces- 
sarily, as  he  had  done  at  Richmond,  and  assuring  him  of  the 
earnest  desire  of  all  his  countrymen  to  close  the  war  he  had  so 
successfully  conducted.  After  acknowledging  the  receipt  of 
the  letter,  the  President  replied,  April  14th,  the  day  of  his 
death,  and  said  : 

I  intend  to  adopt  tlie  advice  of  my  friends  and  use  due  precaution.   *  *  *  I 
thank  you  for  the  assurance  you  gave  me  that  I  shall  be  supported  by  conser- 
vative men  like  yourself,  in  the  efforts  I  may  make  to  restore  the  Union,  so  as  to 
make  it,  to  use  your  language,  a  Union  of  hearts  and  hands  as  well  as  of  States, 
Yours,  truly, 

A.  LINCOLN. 
To  General  Van  Allen. 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  THE  PRESIDENT, 

AND 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  DYING  SCENE. 


On  Friday  night,  the  fourteenth  of  April,  1865,  President 
Lincoln  was  assassinated,  under  the  most  atrocious  and  appal- 
ling circumstances.  The  day  that  shrouded  the  nation  in 
mourning  was  commemorative  of  the  most  significant  celebra- 
tion of  the  century.  The  flag  of  the  nation  had  been  stricken 
down  by  traitors  from  the  battlements  of  Fort  Sumter  on  the 
14th  of  April,  1861  ;  and  on  the  same  day  of  the  month,  1865, 
that  same  flag,  under  the  direction  of  the  Government,  and 
with  military  and  religious  ceremonies  and  rejoicings,  was 
again  unfurled  over  the  fort,  as  the  emblem  of  the  restored 
sovereignty  of  the  nation. 

Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  invited  by  the  President 
and  Secretary  of  War  to  deliver  an  oration  on  the  occasion. 
This  duty  he  performed,  and  at  the  close  of  his  address  he  re- 
ferred to  the  President  in  these  words  : 

From  this  pulpit  of  broken  stones  we  speak  forth  our  earnest  greeting  to  all 
our  land. 

We  offer  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  our  solemn  congratulations 
that  God  has  sustained  his  life  and  health  under  the  unparalleled  burdens  and 
sufferings  of  four  bloody  years,  and  permitted  him  to  behold  this  auspicious 
consummation  of  that  national  unity  for  which  he  has  waited  with  so  much 
patience  and  fortitude,  and  for  which  he  has  labored  with  such  disinterested 
wisdom. 

These  words  of  greeting  had  scarcely  passed  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  memorable  spot  where  they  were  uttered  ere  the 

29 


EG 


fatal  bullet  of  the  assassin  had  pierced  the  life  of  the  Presi- 
dent, and  the  nation's  joy  turned  suddenly  into  a  night  of  deep- 
est sorrow,  which  rolled  as  the  tides  of  the  ocean  over  the 
country  and  the  continent. 

VISIT  TO   THE  THEATRE. 

It  was  announced  in  the  papers  of  the  morning  of  the  14th 
of  April,  that  President  Lincoln  and  Lieutenant  General 
Grant  would  be  in  attendance  at  Ford's  theatre  on  that  even- 
ing. General  Grant  was  not  present,  and  the  President,  in 
the  kindness  of  his  heart,  not  wishing  to  disappoint  the  peo- 
ple, reluctantly  went. 

At  half-past  eight  o'clock,  Mr.  Lincoln,  accompanied  by  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  Miss  Harris,  and  Major  Rathbone,  entered  the  theatre. 
The  play,  Taylor's  "American  Cousin,"  was  "going  smoothly." 
Dundreary  was  telling  why  a  dog  wags  his  tail,  and  the  enthu- 
siastic reception  of  Mr.  Lincoln  drowned  the  point  of  Dun- 
dreary's conundrum.  When  he  reached  the  door  of  the  private 
box,  the  President  turned  and  bowed  in  acknowledgment  of 
the  greeting,  and  then  followed  Mrs.  Lincoln  into  the  box. 

The  President,  as  usual  with  him,  had  no  guard,  save  that 
which  perhaps  in  his  greatness  of  heart  he  deemed  all  sufficient — 
a  consciousness  of  duty  well  discharged,  a  feeling  of  love  and 
charity  to  all  mankind,  which,  innocent  of  hate  itself,  feared  it 
not  in  others. 

The  box  occupied  by  the  presidential  party  consisted  of  the 
two  upper  boxes  on  the  right  hand  side  of  the  audience,  which, 
by  the  removal  of  a  partition,  had  been  thrown  into  one.  In 
the  corner  nearest  the  stage  sat  Miss  Harris,  in  an  arm-chair  ; 
next  her  sat  Mrs.  Lincoln,  on  a  cane-bottomed  chair,  at  a  dis- 
tance of  some  four  feet  from  Miss  Harris  ;  while  in  the  corner 
furthest  from  the  stage  sat  the  President.  Major  Rathbone  sat 
on  a  velvet-covered  sofa  in  the  back  part  of  the  box. 

The  box  was  decorated  with  the  flag  he  loved  so  well,  hang- 
ing around  him  and  his  friends  in  graceful  festoons,  relieved  by 
a  back  ground  of  lace.  Where  the  flags  met,  an  engraving  of 
"Washington  in  a  gilt  frame  was  placed.  The  interior  of  the 
box  was  lined  with  crimson  velvet  paper,  and  had  then  no  other 


31 

ornaments  than  the  stripes  and  stars  the  flags  afforded.  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  was  not  the  man  to  wish  for  any  other  when  they 
were  present. 

This  box  was  furnished  with  one  sofa  of  crimson  velvet,  and 
three  arm-chairs  similarly  covered.  Besides  these  there  were 
six  cane-bottomed  chairs,  and  nothing  more. 

Tlie  box  has  two  entrances,  consisting  of  doors  leading  from 
the  dress-circle.  The  only  one  used  on  the  night  of  the  mur- 
der was  that  which,  when  closed,  offers  a  surface  parallel  to 
that  of  the  scenes  on  the  stage.  The  other  door,  which  was 
locked,  stands  at  right  angles  with  the  former. 

It  having  been  advertised  that  the  receipts  of  the  night  were 
for  the  benefit  of  Miss  Laura  Keeue,  and  the  expected  presence 
of  President  Lincoln  and  General  Grant,  the  attendance  was 
both  large  and  fashionable.  The  parquette  was  full ;  the  dress 
circle  nearly  so. 

Mrs.  Lincoln,  during  the  performance  of  the  first  two  acts, 
seemed  much  to  enjoy  the  eccentricities  of  Trenchard  and  the 
oddities  of  Dundreary,  her  hand  resting  upon  her  husband's 
knee,  his  left  arm  on  the  balustrade  of  the  box,  and  only  his 
left  profile  visible  to  the  audience. 

All  went  as  smoothly  behind  as  before  the  scenes,  the  pres- 
ence of  the  President  awaking  emulation  among  the  people  of 
the  company.  Towards  the  beginning  of  the  second  scene  of 
the  third  act,  John  Wilkes  Booth,  son  of  the  celebrated  actor 
of  the  same  name,  visited  this  exclusive  domain,  to  which  his 
profession  of  actor  was  an  open  sesame.  He  entered  by  the 
back  door  of  the  theatre,  and  left  very  soon,  leaving  that  back 
door  open.  He  had  evidently  ridden  to  the  theatre,  for  ere 
entering  he  left  his  horse  in  the  alley. 

The  comedy  is  in  its  third  act,  in  the  second  scene  of  it. 
Madame  Mountchessington  has  left  the  stage  to  Asa  Trench- 
ard, with  the  remark : 

"  You  don't  understand  the  manners  of  good  society.  That 
alone  can  excuse  the  impertinence  of  which  you  are  guilty." 

Trenchard  answers,  "  I  guess  I  know  enough  to  turn  you  in- 
side out ;"  and  the  audience  clap  their  hands  and  laugh  in  glee. 
Mrs.  Lincoln  joins  in  the  laugh — a  pistol  shot,  sharp  and  clear, 
is  heard.   The  words  Sic  semper  tyrannis  are  whispered — "  Be- 


32 

venge  for  the  South"  is  added,  a  white  face  "  covered  with  a 
night  of  hair,"  lighted  by  two  black,  shining  eyes,  is  seen  be- 
tween the  President's  box  and  the  stage  ;  a  moment  passes  ;  it 
drops.  A  form  crouches  as  it  falls,  then  rises  in  histrionic  at- 
titude, in  its  hand  a  knife,  whose  newly  polished  surface  reflects 
the  numerous  gas  jets.  Three  seconds — nay,  two — and  it  is 
gone. 

Still  as  the  hush  that  follows  a  prayer  in  the  chamber  of  the 
dying,  the  audience  sit  spell-bound,  it  may  have  been,  for  two 
seconds  ;  a  tall  man  jumps  upon  the  stage,  and  he  too  disap- 
peared, while  a  voice  in  the  audience  at  last  utters  the  name 
of  tlie  assassin — "  John  Wilkes  Booth." 

Booth,  after  his  visit  behind  the  scenes,  having  left  the  back 
door  open,  rapidly  went  to  the  front  of  the  theatre,  ascended 
into  the  dress  circle,  passed  by  the  only  open  door  into  the  box, 
advanced  to  the  front  of  it,  and  leaning  over,  with  the  elbow  of 
his  right  arm  out  of  the  box,  his  left  hand  on  the  balustrade, 
fired  a  pistol  at  the  President.     This  pistol,  a  Derringer,  was 
evidently  loaded  with  two  (perhaps  with  more  than  two)  balls, 
of  diameter  less  than  that  of  the  pistol  barrel.     One  of  these 
balls  struck  the  President  below  the  left  ear,  and  two  inches 
behind  it.     The  other  did  not  hit  him,  but  went  through  the 
locked  and  unused  door  of  the  box,  scattering  splinters  outside 
(not  inside)  the  box.     Having  fired,  Booth  dropped  the  pistol 
and  drew  a  long  knife,  sharpened  like  the  sword  of  a  Roman 
gladiator,  a  regular  stylus  in  form,  but  rounded,  not  angled,  to 
a  point.     He  vaulted  over  the  balustrade  of  the  box,  his  left 
hand  supporting  his  weight,  and  breaking  his  fall  by  its  hold 
on  it.     The  distance  from  that  balustrade  to  the  floor  of  the 
theatre  is  exactly  twelve  feet  and  eight  inches.     Tlie  exclama- 
tion, "  Sic  semper  tyrannis,"  was  uttered  as  he  vaulted  out  of 
the  box,  and  as  he  recovered  his  feet  on  alighting,  he  said  some- 
thing of  which  we  could  only  gather  four  words,  "  Revenge  for 
the  South."     He  then  in  a  stilted,  stagey,  yet  rapid  stride,  his 
white  face  turned  toward  the  awe-stricken  audience,  gained  the 
first  stage  entrance,  pushed  aside  Miss  Laura  Keene,  there 
awaiting  her  cue  to  enter  upon  the  scene,  and  with  the  glitter- 
ing stylus  still  in  his  hand,  pushed  on  by  the  prompter's  desk, 
turned  to  the  right,  and  by  none  of  the  audience  was  again 


33 

seen.    Fifteen  seconds  will  cover  the  time  between  the  explo- 
sion of  the  pistol  and  Booth's  disappearance.     The  distance  he 
had  to  go  across  the  stage  was  exactly  thirty-nine  feet.     After 
turning  to  the  right  and  leaving  the  prompter's  desk  behind 
him,  he  was  in  a  sort  of  alley-way  or  lane,  formed  by  the  ends 
of  the  scenery  and  the  wall  of  the  theatre.     This  alley-way  is 
only  twenty-five  feet  long  from  the  first  entrance,  and  at  the 
end  of  it  stands  the  open  back  door  at  which  the  horse  awaited 
the  man  whose  chivalry  could  induce  him  to  murder,  but  could 
never  summon  courage  to  fight  in  the  ranks  of  his  brother 
rebels.     The  whole  distance,  therefore,  from  the  foot  of  the 
box,  where  lay  the  bleeding  sacrifice  of  his  hate,  to  the  horse 
on  which  he  was  to  flee,  was  only  sixty-four  feet.     That  time 
was  afforded  him  to  pass  over  this  short  distance,  by  the  stupor 
into  whicli  surprise  and  horror  had  thrown  the  audience,  cannot 
be  wondered  at.     The  knife  he  held,  it  is  claimed,  secured  him 
from  "  let  or  stop  "  by  a  scene-shifter,  who  strove  by  passing 
through  the  entrances  to  intercept  him.     As  he  passed  out,  he 
met  the  leader  of  the  orchestra,  William  Withers,  Jr.,  and 
made  two  cuts  at  him,  spoiling  his  coat,  but  not  at  all  injuring 
his  person.    To  mount  his  horse,  and  run  from  the  scene  of  his 
crime,  was  easy  ;  but  what  horse  will  ever  enable  him  to  out- 
strip the  memory  of  that  deed  ?     Out  he  rode  into  the  night ; 
but  what  night  will  he  ever  find  dark  enough  to  hide  from  the 
eyes  of  his  soul  the  gaze  of  stony  horror  fixed  upon  him  by  the 
forest  of  white  faces  he  glared  upon  as  he  crossed  that  stage  ? 
But  one  attempt  was  made  to  pursue  the  flying  coward. 
Joseph  B.  Stewart,  Esq.,  a  well-known  counsellor  of  our  city, 
jumped  upon  the  stage,  and  did  not  lose  sight  of  him  till  he 
mounted  and  rode  off ;  but  this  he  succeeded  in  doing  ere  Mr. 
Stewart  could  reach  him.     Unfortunately,  Mr.  Stewart  was  not 
armed. 

The  audience  were  not  at  all  alarmed  by  the  report  of  the 
pistol  in  the  box.  It  was  supposed  by  most  to  be  part  of  the 
business  of  the  piece  ;  and  it  was  not  till  the  marble  face  and 
gleaming  dagger  were  seen  descending  from  the  box  that  a  sus- 
picion of  the  truth  flashed  upon  them.  When  Boo.th  was  named 
as  the  man,  some  few  cries  of  "  Hang  him  !"  were  raised  ;  but 
though  the  audience  left  their  feet,  they  seemed  bereft  not  only 

3 


34 

of  all  power  of  action,  but  even  all  power  of  thought.  A 
vacant,  doubting  look  was  stamped  upon  each  face  ;  and  it  was 
not  till  Miss  Harris  called  to  Miss  Keene  for  some  water,  and 
a  few  gentlemen  had  ascended  the  stage,  that  the  mind  of  the 
audience  seemed  to  take  in  understandingly  the  deed,  and 
all  the  horror  of  the  deed  they  had  witnessed.  They  swayed 
back  and  forth,  indignation  and  menace  succeeding  to  irresolu- 
tion, till  the  amphitheatre,  like  the  gates  of  Eden,  seemed 
"with  fiery  faces  thronged."  All  spoke,  but  no  one  said  any- 
thing. Exclamation  followed  exclamation,  till  at  last  Miss 
Keene  stepped  forth,  and  waving  her  arm,  besought  them  to 
be  calm  and  retain  their  seats.  At  last,  on  repeated  requests 
to  leave  the  theatre,  made  by  several  gentlemen,  the  audience 
rolled,  rather  than  walked  out,  leaving  the  theatre,  in  which 
they  had  witnessed  a  tragedy  unequalled  in  atrocity  or  magni- 
tude of  consequences  since  the  murder  of  the  first  Csesar. 

While  Mr.  Stewart  was  pursuing  the  assassin  and  the  audi- 
ence were  striving  to  recover  their  senses,  Mr.  Lincoln  lay 
bleeding  up  stairs.  There  is  but  one  word  that  can  describe 
the  state  of  those  in  the  box  with  him — paralysis.  Miss  Harris 
recovered  first,  and  called  to  Miss  Keene  for  some  water  ;  a 
gentleman,  aided  by  the  former,  climbed  into  the  box.  A  gen- 
tleman at  last  brought  a  pitcher  of  water.  Several  others 
also  ascended  into  the  box,  as  the  house  was  being  emptied. 

At  last  medical  aid  arrived  ;  the  throbbing  crowd  outside 
•was  forced  back,  the  street  was  picketed,  and  one  hour  later 
the  docturs  had  the  suffering  form  transferred  to  the  house  of 
Mr.  Peterson,  opposite  the  theatre. 

The  President  was  soon  surrounded  by  all  the  members  of 
his  Cabinet,  except  Mr.  Seward,  who  was  then  lying  in  bed, 
scarce  better  than  the  chief  who  had  so  valued  his  counsels,  so 
trusted  his  sagacity.  But,  alas!  while  the  minister  heard  in 
this  world  that  the  President  was  murdered,  the  President 
never  knew  on  earth  that  the  life  of  his  friend  was  threatened 
and  attacked  with  his  own. 

Besides  the  members  of  the  Cabinet,  Mrs.  Lincoln,  Miss  Har- 
ris, Major  Rathbone,  and  the  leading  medical  men  of  the  army 
now  in  Washington,  and  several  eminent  doctors,  Mrs.  Senator 
Dixon  was  sent  for  by  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  remained  with  her 


35 

through  the  bitter  hours  of  the  solemn  night.  Mrs.  and  Miss 
Kinney  were  also  present,  offering  those  consolations  with 
which  one  human  heart  so  vainly  yearns  to  lighten  the  burden 
of  sorrow  piled  upon  another. 

Mrs.  Lincoln  was  under  great  excitement  and  agony,  wring- 
ing her  hands,  and  exclaiming,  "  Why  did  he  not  shoot  me  in- 
stead of  my  husband  ?  I  have  tried  to  be  so  careful  of  him, 
fearing  something  would  happen,  and  his  life  seemed  to  be 
more  precious  now  than  ever.  I  must  go  with  him  ;"  and  other 
expressions  of  like  character.  She  was  constantly  going  back 
and  forth  to  the  bedside  of  the  President,  exclaiming  in  great 
agony,  "  How  can  it  be  so  ?"  The  scene  was  heartrending, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  portray  it  in  its  living  light.  It  beggars 
description,  and  can  better  be  imagined  than  described.  Cap- 
tain Robert  Lincoln  bore  himself  with  great  firmness,  and 
constantly  endeavored  to  assuage  the  grief  of  his  mother  by 
telling  her  to  put  her  trust  in  God  and  all  would  be  well.  Oc- 
casionally, being  entirely  overcome,  he  would  retire  into  the 
hall  and  give  vent  to  most  heartrending  lamentations.  He 
would  recover  himself  and  return  to  his  mother,  and  with  re- 
markable self-possession  try  to  cheer  her  broken  spirits  and 
lighten  her  load  of  sorrow.  His  conduct  was  a  most  remark- 
able exhibition  of  calmness.  About  a  quarter  of  an  hour  be- 
fore the  President  died  his  breathing  became  very  difficult,  and 
in  many  instances  seemed  to  have  entirely  ceased,  so  that  the 
surgeons  who  were  holding  his  pulse  supposed  him  to  be  dead. 
He  would  again  rally  and  breathe  with  so  great  difficulty  as  to 
be  heard  almost  in  every  part  of  the  house.  Mrs.  Lincoln  took 
her  last  leave  of  him  about  twenty  minutes  before  he  ex- 
pired, and  was  sitting  in  the  adjoining  room  when  it  was  an- 
nounced to  her  that  he  was  dead.  When  the  announcement 
was  made,  she  exclaimed,  "  Oh,  why  did  you  not  tell  me  he  was 
dying?" 

It  being  ascertained  that  life  was  extinct,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley 
knelt  at  the  bedside  and  offered  an  impressive  prayer,  which 
was  responded  to  by  all  present.  Dr.  Gurley  then  proceeded 
to  the  front  parlor,  where  Mrs.  Lincoln,  Captain  Robert  Lin- 
coln, Mr.  John  Hay,  the  private  secretary,  and  others,  were 


36 

waiting,  where  he  again  offered  prayer  for  the  consolation  of 
the  family. 

The  surgeons  and  the  members  of  the  Cabinet,  Senator 
Sumner,  Captain  Robert  Lincoln,  General  Todd,  Mr,  Field, 
and  Mr.  Andrews,  were  standing  at  his  bedside  when  he 
breathed  his  last.  Senator  Sumner,  General  Todd,  Robert 
Lincoln,  and  Rufus  Andrews  stood  leaning  over  the  headboard 
of  the  bed  watching  every  motion  of  the  beating  breast  of 
the  dying  President.  Robert  Lincoln  was  resting  himself  upon 
the  arm  of  Senator  Sumner.  The  members  of  the  Cabinet 
were  standing  by  the  side  of  the  bed — Secretary  Stanton  at 
the  left  of  Mr.  Andrews,  Mr.  Andrews  near  Mr.  Lincoln's 
head.  Next  to  him  was  Mr.  Dennison,  and  the  others  arranged 
along  at  his  left,  and  the  surgeons  were  sitting  upon  the  side 
and  foot  of  the  bed,  holding  the  President's  hands,  and  with 
their  watches  observing  the  slow  declension  of  the  pulse,  and 
watching  the  ebbing  out  of  the  vital  spirit.  Such  was  the  sol- 
emn stillness  for  the  space  of  five  minutes  that  the  ticking  of 
the  watches  could  be  heard  in  the  room.  At  twenty-two  min- 
utes past  seven  A.  M.  his  muscles  relaxed  and  the  spirit  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  fled  from  its  earthly  tabernacle  "  to  that 
bourne  from  which  no  traveller  returns."  The  countenance  of 
the  President  was  beaming  with  that  characteristic  smile  which 
only  those  who  have  seen  him  in  his  happiest  moments  can  ap- 
preciate ;  and,  except  the  blackness  of  his  eyes,  his  face  ap- 
peared perfectly  natural.  He  died  without  a  struggle,  and 
without  even  a  perceptible  motion  of  a  limb.  Calmly  and  si- 
lently the  great  and  good  man  passed  away.  The  morning  was 
calm,  and  the  rain  was  dropping  gently  upon  the  roof  of  the 
humble  apartment  where  they  laid  him  down  to  die.  Guards 
had  been  stationed  to  keep  the  people  from  the  house,  and  no 
noise  could  be  heard  in  the  streets  save  the  footsteps  of  the 
sentry  passing  to  and  fro,  as  he  guarded  all  that  remained  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  The  body  servant  of  the  President  entered 
the  room  just  before  he  died,  and  as  the  breath  left  the  body  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  this  servant  manifested  the  deepest  sorrow.  All 
present  felt  the  awful  solemnity  of  the  occasion,  and  no  man 
could  have  witnessed  the  touching  scene§,  without  melting  to 


37 

tears.  Mr.  Stanton,  whose  coolness  and  self-possession  were 
remarkable,  could  not  keep  back  the  silent  monitors  of  the 
inward  sorrow  which  rolled  out  from  his  eyes  upon  his  cheeks. 
Mrs.  Lincoln  remained  but  a  short  time,  when  she  was  assisted 
into  her  carriage,  and  with  her  son  Eobert  and  other  friends 
she  was  driven  to  the  house  where  but  last  evening  she  left  for 
the  last  time  with  her  honored  husband,  who  never  again  was 
to  enter  that  home  alive. 

The  agony  of  that  night,  what  man  can  measure,  what  judg- 
ment short  of  the  Infinite  estimate  ! 

Within,  a  wife  by  the  bedside  of  a  dying,  murdered  husband. 
The  statesmen  of  a  nation  just  recovering  from  an  unparalleled 
convulsion,  losing  the  leader  that  steered  them  through  it. 
Without,  a  people  wailing  over  the  loss  of  a  heart  and  brain 
that  felt  and  throbbed  for  them  alone,  and  the  awed  operator 
spreading  woe  and  consternation  over  a  land  that  has  been 
mourning  its  dead  for  four  long  years  of  bitter  strife.  From 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  away  across  the  great  prairies,  a  people 
replacing  the  jubilates  of  the  day  before  with  a  night  of  univer- 
sal requiem ! 

From  the  very  first  the  case  was  hopeless.  The  pulse,  which 
at  eleven  was  reported  41,  at  half-past  one  was  up  to  86,  and 
at  six  failing,  and  at  twenty- two  minutes  past  seven  he  was 

DEAD  ! 

Around  him  when  he  died  were  Secretaries  Stanton,  Wells, 
Usher;  Attorney  General  Speed ;  Postmaster  General  Dennison; 
M.  B.  Field,  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  Judge  Otto, 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Interior  ;  General  Ilalleck,  General 
Meigs,  Senator  Sumner;  F.  R.  Andrews,  of  New  York  ;  Gene- 
ral Todd,  of  Dacotah  ;  John  Hay,  (Private  Secretary,)  Gover- 
nor Oglesby,  of  Illinois  ;  General  Farnsworth,  Mrs.  and  Miss 
Kenny,  Miss  Harris,  Captain  Robert  Lincoln,  son  of  the  Presi- 
dent, and  Drs.  E.  W.  Abbott,  R.  K.  Stone,  C.  D.  Gatch,  Neal, 
Hall,  and  Leiberman.  Secretary  McCullough  remained  with 
him  until  about  5  o'clock,  and  Chief  Justice  Chase,  after  several 
hours  attendance  during  the  night,  returned  again  early  in  the 
morning. 


38 

ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  THE  PRESIDENT'S   DEATH  BY  THE  SECRETARY 

OP  WAR. 

Washington,  D.  C,  ApHl  15,  1865—1.30  A.  M. 
Major  General  Dix,  New  York  : 

This  evening,  about  9.30  P.  M.,  at  Ford's  Theatre,  the  President,  while  sitting 
in  his  private  box  with  Mrs.  Lincoln,  Miss  Harris,  and  Major  Rathbone,  was 
shot  by  an  assassin,  who  suddenly  entered  the  box  and  approached  behind  the 
President.  The  assassin  then  leaped  upon  the  stage,  brandishing  a  large  dag- 
ger or  knife,  and  made  his  escape  in  the  rear  of  the  theatre. 

The  pistol  ball  entered  the  back  of  the  head  of  the  President  and  penetrated 
nearly  through  the  head.  The  wound  is  mortal.  The  President  has  been  insen- 
sible ever  since  it  was  inflicted,  and  is  now  dying. 

About  the  same  time  an  assassin,  either  the  same  or  another,  entered  Mr. 
Seward's  house,  and  under  pretence  of  having  a  prescription,  was  shown  to  the 
Secretary's  sick  chamber.  The  Secretary  was  in  bed,  a  nurse  and  Miss  Seward 
with  him. 

The  assassin  immediately  rushed  to  the  bed  and  inflicted  two  or  three  stabs 
on  the  throat  and  two  on  the  face.  It  is  hoped  the  wounds  may  not  be  mortal. 
My  apprehension  is  that  they  will  prove  fatal. 

The  noise  alarmed  Mr.  Frederick  Seward,  who  was  in  an  adjoining  room, 
and  hastened  to  the  door  of  his  father's  room,  where  he  met  the  assassin,  who 
inflicted  upon  him  one  or  more  dangerous  wounds. 

The  recovery  of  Frederick  Seward  is  doubtful.  It  is  not  probable  that  the 
President  will  live  through  the  night. 

General  Grant  and  wife  were  advertised  to  be  at  the  theatre  this  evening,  but 
started  to  Burlington  at  6  P.  M. 

At  a  Cabinet  meeting,  at  which  General  Grant  was  present,  to-day,  the  sub- 
ject of  the  state  of  the  country,  and  the  prospects  of  a  speedy  peace,  &c.,  were 
discussed. 

The  President  was  very  cheerful  and  hopeful,  and  spoke  very  kindly  of  Lee 
and  other  officers  of  the  rebel  army,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Government 
in  Virginia. 

All  the  members  of  the  Cabinet,  except  Mr.  Seward,  are  now  with  Mr.  Lin- 
coln. 

I  have  seen  Mr.  Seward.     He  and  Frederick  Seward  are  both  unconscious. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

Wae  Lepaetment, 
Washington,  D.  C,  April  15,  1865—3  A.  M. 
Major  General  Dix,  New  York: 

The  President  still  breathes,  but  is  quite  insensible,  as  he  has  been  ever  sinca 
he  was  shot.  He  evidently  did  not  see  the  person  who  shot  him,  but  was  look- 
ing on  the  stage  as  he  was  approached  behind. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 


39 

War  Depaetment, 

Washington,  April  15 — 4.10  A.  M. 
To  Major  General  Dix  : 

The  President  continues  insensible  and  is  sinking. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

War  Department,  Washington,  April  15. 
Major  General  Dix: 
Abraham  Lincoln  died  this  morning  at  twenty-two  minutes  after  7  o'clock. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 
Secretary  of  War. 

The  following  minutes,  taken  by  Dr.  Abbott,  show  the  con- 
dition of  the  President  throughout  the  night : 

11  o'clock—Pulse  41. 

11.5 — 45,  and  growing  weaker. 

11.10—45. 

11.15—42. 

11.20—45.     Respiration  27  to  29. 

11.25—42. 

11.32—48,  and  full. 

11.40—45. 

11.45 — 45.     Respiration  22. 

12—48.    Respiration  22. 

12.15 — 48.     Respiration  21.    Echmos  both  eyes. 

12.30—54. 

12.32—60. 

12.35—66. 

12.40 — 69.    Right  eye  much  swollen,  and  echemoses. 

12.45—70.     Respiration  27. 

12.55 — 80.    Struggling  motion  of  arms. 

1  o'clock — 86.     Respiration  30. 

1.30 — 95.     Appearing  easier. 

1.45 — 86.    Very  quiet.     Respiration  irregular.     Mrs.  Lincoln  present. 

2.10 — Mrs.  Lincoln  retired  with  Robert  Lincoln  to  an  adjoining  room. 

2.30 — President  very  quiet.    Pulse  54.     Respiration  28. 

2.52—48.     Respiration  30. 

3  o'clock — Visited  again  by  Mrs.  Lincoln. 

3.25 — Respiration  24,  and  regular. 

3.35 — Prayer  by  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley. 

4 — Respiration  26,  and  regular. 

4.15 — Pulse  60.     Respiration  25. 

5.50 — Respiration  28;  regular.     Sleeping. 

6 — Pulse  failing.     Respiration  28. 

6.30 — Still  failing,  and  labored  breathing. 

7 — Symptoms  of  immediate  dissolution. 

7.22— Death. 


40 

Shortly  after  9  o'clock  Saturday  morning  the  remains  were 
placed  in  a  temporary  coffin,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Frank 
Sands,  and  removed  to  the  White  House,  six  young  men  of  the 
quartermaster's  department  carrying  the  body  to  the  house. 

An  escort  of  cavalry,  (Union  Light  Guard,)  under  the  com- 
manu  of  Lieutenant  Jamison,  accompanied  the  remains,  which 
were  followed  by  Generals  Augur,  commanding  Department  of 
Washington  ;  Eucker,  depot  quartermaster  ;  Colonel  Pelouze, 
of  the  War  Department ;  Captain  Finley  Anderson,  A.  A.  G., 
Hancock's  corps  ;  Captain  D.  G.  Thomas,  clothing  depot ; 
Captains  J.  H.  Crowell  and  C.  Baker. 

The  solemn  procession  moved  slowly  up  10th  street  to  G, 
and  thence  to  the  White  House,  a  large  crowd  present  along 
the  route  standing  uncovered.  Immediately  on  the  guard 
being  removed,  a  rush  was  made  toward  the  house  occupied 
during  the  night  by  the  President,  remaining  about  the  entrance 
for  some  time. 

The  house  to  which  the  President  was  carried  from  the 
theatre  is  No.  453  Tenth  street,  between  E  and  F  streets.  The 
house  is  a  plain  three-story  brick,  built  in  1849. 

The  room  in  which  he  breathed  his  last  is  on  the  first  story, 
at  the  end  of  a  hall  from  which  rises  a  stairway.  The  room 
is  covered  with  a  paper  of  a  brown  hue,  figured  with  white. 
In  the  room  are  a  table  and  a  bureau  covered  with  crotchet, 
besides  eight  chairs.  The  room  measures  fifteen  feet  by  nine, 
and  is  carpeted  with  Brussels.  The  bed  on  which  he  lay  was  a  low 
walnut  four-poster.  The  sheeting  and  blankets  used  the  night 
before  had  been  removed,  and  nothing  remained  but  two  cotton 
mattresses  and  two  pillows.  They  were  all  stained  with  his 
blood. 

The  walls  were  hung  with  one  photograph  taken  from  some 
lithograph  of  Rosa  Bonheur's  Horse  Fair,  an  engraved  copy  of 
Herring's  Village  Blacksmith,  and  two  smaller  ones  of  "  The 
Stable  "  and  "  Barn-yard,"  from  the  same  artist.  The  house 
is  built  of  material  too  frail  to  induce  the  hope  that  it  will  long 
stand  as  a  memento  of  the  great  man  who  died  in  it,  being 
built  rather  on  the  tenement  style. 


41 


THE  AUTOPSY. 


Surgeon  General  Barnes,  assisted  by  Doctors  Stone,  (the  late 
President's  family  physician,)  Curtis,  Woodward,  Crane,  Tafft, 
and  other  eminent  medical  men,  made  an  autopsy,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  President  Johnson,  General  Augur,  and  General  Rucker. 
The  external  appearance  of  the  face  of  the  President  presented 
a  deep  black  stain  around  both  eyes.  The  fatal  wound  was  on 
the  left  side  of  the  head,  behind,  in  a  line  with  and  three  inches 
from  the  left  ear.  The  course  of  the  ball  was  obliquely  for- 
ward toward  the  right  eye,  crossing  the  brain  in  an  oblique 
manner,  and  lodging  a  few  inches  behind  that  eye.  In  the 
track  of  the  wound  were  found  fragments  of  bone  which  had 
been  driven  forward  by  the  ball,  which  was  imbedded  in  the 
anterior  lobe  of  the  left  hemisphere  of  the  brain.  The  orbit 
plates  of  both  eyes  were  the  seat  of  comminuted  fracture,  and 
the  eyes  were  filled  with  extravasated  blood.  The  serious 
injury  of  the  orbit  plates  was  due  to  the  contre-conp — the  result 
of  the  intense  shock  of  so  large  a  projectile  fired  so  closely  to 
the  head.  The  ball  was  evidently  a  Derringer,  hand-cast,  and 
from  which  the  neck  had  been  clipped.  A  shaving  of  lead  had 
been  removed  from  the  ball  in  its  passage  through  the  bones 
of  the  skull,  and  was  found  in  the  orifice  of  the  wound.  The 
first  fragment  of  bone  was  found  two  and  a  half  inches  within 
the  brain  ;  the  second  and  larger  fragment  about  four  inches 
from  the  orifice  of  the  wound.  The  ball  lay  still  further  in 
advance.  The  wound  was  about  one-half  inch  in  diameter. 
The  autopsy  fully  confirmed  the  opinion  of  the  surgeons  on  the 
night  of  the  assassination,  that  the  wound  was  mortal. 

THE    BODY   EMBALMED. 

Doctors  Brown  and  Alexander  were  sent  for  to  embalm  the 
body  of  President  Lincoln.  The  embalming  process  was  per- 
formed by  Mr.  Harry  P.  Cattell,  an  employee  of  the  above- 
mentioned  firm,  who  also  embalmed  little  Willie  Lincoln,  son 
of  the  President,  in  February,  1862.  The  body  was  embalmed 
in  the  late  President's  own  bed-room,  in  the  west  wing  of  the 


42 

Executive  Mansion,  fronting  on  Pennsylvania  avenue.  Among 
those  in  attendance  during  the  process  were  Vice  President 
Johnson,  General  Augur,  General  Rucker,  and  the  attending 
physicians  of  the  lamented  deceased. 

TESTIMONY  IN    REGARD    TO    THE    ASSASSINATION — ACCOUNTS    BY 

EYE-WITNESSES. 

The  following  affidavits  have  a  most  important  bearing  on 
the  tragedy.  As  they  were  drawn  up  with  great  care,  and  are 
in  the  form  of  legal  evidence,  they  will  be  read  with  interest : 

Affidavit  of  3Iajor  RatJibone* 

DisTETCT  OP  Columbia,  ) 
Oity  of  Washington,      j 

Henry  R.  Rathbone,  Brevet  Major  in  the  army  of  the  United  States,  being 
duly  sworn,  says,  that  on  the  14th  day  of  April  instant,  at  about  twenty  min- 
utes past  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,  he,  with  Mis3  Clara  H.  Harris,  left  his 
residence,  at  the  corner  of  Fifteenth  and  H  streets,  and  joined  the  President 
and  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  went  with  them,  in  their  carriage,  to  Ford's  Theatre,  in 
Tenth  street :  the  box  assigned  to  the  President  is  in  the  second  tier,  on  tha 
right-hand  side  of  the  audience,  and  was  occupied  by  the  President  and  Mrs, 
Lincoln,  Miss  Harris,  and  the  deponent,  and  by  no  other  person ;  the  box  is 
entered  by  passing  from  the  front  of  the  building,  in  the  rear  of  the  dress  circle, 
to  a  small  entry  or  passage  way,  about  eight  feet  in  length  and  four  feet  in 
■width;  this  passage  way  is  entered  by  a  door,  which  opens  on  the  inner  side; 
the  door  is  so  placed  as  to  make  an  acute  angle  between  it  and  the  wall  behind 
it  on  the  inner  side ;  at  the  inner  end  of  this  passageway  is  another  door,  stand- 
ing squarely  across,  and  opening  into  the  box ;  this  latter  door  was  closed ;  the 
party  entered  the  box  through  the  door  at  the  end  of  the  passage  way  ;  the  box 
is  so  constructed  that  it  may  be  divided  into  two  by  a  movable  partition,  one 
of  the  doors  described  opening  into  each ;  the  front  of  the  box  is  about  ten  or 
twelve  feet  in  length,  and  in  the  centre  of  the  railing  is  a  small  pillar,  overhung 
with  a  curtain ;  the  depth  of  the  box  from  front  to  rear  is  about  nine  feet ;  the 
elevation  of  the  box  above  the  stage,  including  the  railing,  is  about  ten  or 
twelve  feet. 

"When  the  party  entered  the  box,  a  cushioned  arm-chair  was  standing  at  the 
end  of  the  box  furthest  from  the  stage  and  nearest  the  audience.  This  was 
also  the  nearest  point  to  the  door  by  which  the  box  is  entered.  The  President 
seated  himself  in  this  chair,  and  except  that  he  once  left  the  chair  for  the  pur- 
pose of  putting  on  his  overcoat,  remained  so  seated  until  he  was  shot.  Mrs, 
Lincoln  was  seated  in  a  chair  between  the  President  and  the  pillar  in  the 
centre,  above  described.    At  the  opposite  end  of  the  box — that  nearest  the  end 


43 

of  the  stage — were  two  chairs.  In  one  of  these,  standing  in  the  corner,  Mis9 
Harris  was  seated.  At  her  left  hand,  and  along  the  wall  running  from  that  end 
of  the  box  to  the  rear,  stood  a  small  sofa.  At  the  end  of  this  sofa,  next  to  Miss 
Harris, (this  deponent  was  seated.  The  distance  between  this  deponent  and  the 
President,  as  they  were  sitting,  was  about  seven  or  eight  feet,  and  the  distance 
between  this  deponent  and  the  door  was  about  the  same.  The  distance  between 
the  President,  as  he  sat,  and  the  door,  was  about  four  or  five  feet.  The  door, 
according  to  the  recollection  of  this  deponent,  was  not  closed  during  the  eve- 
ning. When  the  second  scene  of  the  third  act  was  being  performed,  and  while 
this  deponent  was  intently  observing  the  proceedings  upon  the  stage,  with  his 
back  toward  the  door,  he  heard  the  discharge  of  a  pistol  behind  him,  and  look- 
ing around,  saw,  through  the  smoke,  a  man  between  the  door  and  the  President. 
At  the  same  time  deponent  heard  him  shout  some  word  which  deponent  thinks 
was  "  Freedom  !  "  This  deponent  instantly  sprang  toward  him  and  seized  him  ; 
ke  wrested  himself  from  his  grasp  and  made  a  violent  thrust  at  the  breast  of 
deponent  with  a  large  knife.  Deponent  parried  the  blow  by  striking  it  up,  and 
received  a  wound  several  inches  deep  in  his  left  arm,  between  the  elbow  and 
the  shoulder.  The  orifice  of  the  wound  is  about  an  inch  and  a  half  in  length, 
and  extends  upwards  towards  the  shoulder  several  inches.  The  man  rushed  to 
the  front  of  the  box,  and  deponent  endeavored  to  seize  him  again,  but  only 
caught  his  clothes  as  he  was  leaping  over  the  railing  of  the  box.  The  clothes, 
as  deponent  believes,  were  torn  in  this  attempt  to  seize  him.  As  he  went  over 
upon  the  stage,  deponent  cried  out  with  a  loud  voice,  "  Stop  that  man  !"  De- 
ponent then  turned  to  the  President ;  his  position  was  not  changed ;  his  head 
was  slightly  bent  forward,  and  his  eyes  were  closed.  Deponent  saw  that  he  was 
unconscious,  and  supposing  him  mortally  wounded,  rushed  to  the  door  for  the 
purpose  of  calling  medical  aid.  On  reaching  the  outer  door  of  the  passage  way 
as  above  described,  deponent  found  it  barred  by  a  heavy  piece  of  plank,  one  end 
of  which  was  secured  in  the  wall,  and  the  other  resting  against  the  door.  It 
had  been  so  securely  fastened  that  it  required  considerable  force  to  remove  it. 
This  wedge  or  bar  was  about  four  feet  from  the  floor.  Persons  upon  the  outside 
were  beating  against  the  door  for  the  purpose  of  entering.  Deponent  removed 
the  bar,  and  the  door  was  opened.  Several  persons  who  represented  themselves 
to  be  surgeons  were  allowed  to  enter.  Deponent  saw  there  Colonel  Crawford, 
and  requested  him  to  prevent  other  persons  from  entering  the  box.  Deponent 
then  returned  to  the  box,  and  found  the  surgeons  examining  the  President's 
person.  They  had  not  yet  discovered  the  wound.  As  soon  as  it  was  discovered 
it  was  determined  to  remove  him  from  the  theatre.  He  was  carried  out,  and 
this  deponent  then  proceeded  to  assist  Mrs.  Lincoln,  who  was  intensely  excited, 
to  leave  the  theatre.  On  reaching  the  head  of  the  stairs,  deponent  requested 
Major  Potter  to  aid  him  in  assisting  Mrs.  Lincoln  across  the  street  to  the  house 
to  which  the  President  was  being  conveyed.  The  wound  which  deponent  bad 
received  had  been  bleeding  very  profusely,  and  on  reaching  the  house,  feeling 
very  faint  from  the  loss  of  blood,  he  seated  himself  in  the  hall,  and  soon  after 
fainted  away,  and  was  laid  upon  the  floor.  Upon  the  return  of  consciousness, 
deponent  was  taken  in  a  carriage  to  his  residence. 

lu  the  review  of  the  transaction,  it  is  the  confident  belief  of  this  deponent 


44 

that  the  time  which  elapsed  between  the  discharge  of  the  pistol  and  the  time 
■when  the  assassin  leaped  from  the  box  did  not  exceed  thirty  seconds.  Neither 
Mrs.  Lincoln  nor  Miss  Harris  had  left  their  seats. 

H.  R.  RATHBONE. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  before  me  this  17th  day  of  April,  1865. 

A.  B.  OLIN, 
Justice  Supreme  Court,  D.  C. 

Affidavit  of  3Iiss  Harris. 


District  of  Columbia,  ) 
City  oj  Washington,     J 

Clara  H.  Harris,  being  duly  sworn,  says  that  she  has  read  the  foregoing  affi- 
davit of  Major  Rathbone,  and  knows  the  contents  thereof;  that  she  was  present 
at  Ford's  Theatre  with  the  President  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  and  Major  Rathbone  on 
the  evening  of  the  14th  of  April  instant;  that  at  the  time  she  heard  the  dis- 
charge of  the  pistol  she  was  attentively  engaged  in  observing  what  was  trans- 
piring upon  the  stage,  and  looking  round  she  saw  Major  Rathbone  spring  from 
his  seat  and  advance  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  box ;  that  she  saw  him  engaged 
as  if  in  a  struggle  with  another  man,  but  the  smoke  with  which  he  was  envel- 
oped prevented  this  deponent  from  seeing  distinctly  the  other  man ;  that  the 
first  time  she  saw  him  distinctly  was  when  he  leaped  from  the  box  upon  the 
stage;  that  she  then  heard  Major  Rathbone  cry  out  "Stop  that  man  !"  and  this 
deponent  then  immediately  repeated  the  cry,  "  Stop  that  man !  Won't  somebody 
stop  that  man?"  A  moment  after,  some  one  from  the  stage  asked,  "  What  is 
it?"  or  "  What  is  the  matter?"  and  deponent  replied,  "The  President  is  shot." 
Very  soon  after,  two  persons,  one  wearing  the  uniform  of  a  naval  surgeon,  and 
the  other  that  of  a  soldier  of  the  Veteran  Reserve  Corps,  came  upon  the  stage, 
and  the  deponent  assisted  them  in  climbing  up  to  the  box. 

And  this  deponent  further  says  that  the  facts  stated  in  the  foregoing  affidavit, 
60  far  as  the  same  came  to  the  knowledge  or  notice  of  this  deponent,  are  accu- 
rately stated  therein. 

CLARA  H.  HARRIS. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  before  me  this  17th  day  of  April,  1865. 

A.  B.  OLIN, 
CJiief  Justice  Suvreme  Court,  D.  0. 


JOHN  WILKES  BOOTH  THE  ASSASSIN  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT. 


At  3  o'clock  Saturday  morning,  April  15th,  while  the  Presi- 
dent was  passing  through  his  dying  moments,  the  Secretary  of 
War  telegraphed  to  Major  General  Dix,  of  New  York,  that 
"investigation  strongly  indicates  J.  Wilkes  Booth  as  the 
assassin  of  the  President.  Chief  Justice  Cartter  is  engaged  in 
taking  the  evidence.  Every  attempt  has  been  made  to  prevent 
the  escape  of  the  murderer.  His  horse  has  been  found  on  the 
road  near  Washington."  On  the  same  morning  the  Secretary 
of  War  again  telegraphed  to  General  Dix  : 

It  is  now  ascertained  with  reasonable  certainty  that  two  assassins  were 
engaged  in  the  horrible  crime ;  J.  Wilkes  Booth  being  the  one  that  shot  the 
President,  and  the  other,  a  companion  of  his,  whose  name  is  not  known,  but 
whose  description  is  so  clear  that  he  can  hardly  escape.  It  appears  from  a  letter 
found  in  Booth's  trunk  that  the  murder  was  planned  before  the  4th  of  March, 
but  fell  through  then  because  the  accomplice  backed  out  until  "  Richmond 
could  be  heard  from."  It  would  seem  that  they  had  for  several  days  been  seek- 
ing their  chance,  but  for  some  unknown  reason  it  was  not  carried  into  effect 
until  last  night. 

The  following  statement  confirmed  the  fact  that  the  atrocious 
deed  was  committed  by  Booth  : 

STATEMENT  OF   MR.   FERGUSON. 

Mr.  James  P.  Ferguson  went  to  the  theatre  with  a  lady  on  Friday  night  for 
the  express  purpose  of  seeing  General  Grant,  who  was  announced  to  be  present. 
Mr.  Ferguson  saw  the  Presidential  party  enter  the  box,  but  of  course  did  not 
Bee  the  Lieutenant  General.     He,  however,  continued  to  watch  the  box,  think- 

45 


46 

ing  that  the  General  might  intend  to  slip  quietly  in,  in  order  to  avoid  the  de- 
monstrations that  would  attend  his  recognition. 

Wlien  tlie  second  scene  of  the  third  act  of  the  play  was  reached,  Mr. 
Ferguson  saw  (and  recognized)  John  Wilkes  Booth  making  his  way  along  the 
dress  circle  to  the  President's  box.  Of  this  box  Mr.  Ferguson  had  an  excellent 
view,  being  seated  in  the  dress  circle  just  opposite  to  it,  next  to  the  private 
boxes  on  the  other  ■^ide  of  the  circle.  This  seat  he  had  purposely  chosen  to  af- 
ford his  companion  a  good  view  of  the 'Lieutenant  General,  and,  for  the  reasons 
already  stated,  was  narrowly  watching  the  entrance  to  it. 

Mr.  Ferguson  watched  for  his  appearance  in  the  box,  desiring  to  see  who  in 
that  party  the  actor  could  be  on  such  intimate  terms  with,  as  to  feel  warranted 
in  taking  such  a  liberty.  Whether  Booth  shut  the  door  of  the  little  corridor 
or  left  it  open  behind  him,  Mr.  Ferguson  fears  to  state  positively ;  but  from 
what  he  observed  of  the  door,  and  for  reasons  hereafter  to  be  stated,  believes 
he  did  shut  it.  The  shot  was  the  next  thing  Mr.  F.  remembers.  He  saw  the 
smoke,  then  perceived  Booth  standing  upright  with  both  hands  raised,  but  at 
that  moment  saw  no  weapon  or  anything  else  in  either.  Booth  then  sprang  to 
the  front  of  the  box,  laid  his  left  hand  on  the  railing  in  front,  was  checked  an 
instant,  evidently  by  his  coat  or  pants  being  caught  in  something,  or  held  back 
by  somebody.     (It  was  by  Major  Rathbone.) 

Mr.  Ferguson  and  Booth  had  met  in  the  afternoon  and  conversed,  and  were 
well  acquainted  with  each  other,  so  that  the  former  immediately  recognized 
him.  Booth  stopped  two  steps  from  the  door,  took  off  his  hat,  and,  holding  it 
in  his  left  hand,  leaned  against  the  wall  behind  him.  In  this  attitude  he  re- 
mained for  half  a  minute  ;  then,  adds  Mr.  Ferguson,  he  stepped  down  one  step, 
put  his  hand  on  the  door  of  the  little  corridor  leading  to  the  box,  bent  his  knee 
against  it,  the  door  opened  and  Booth  entered,  and  was  for  the  time  hidden 
from  Mr.  Ferguson's  sight. 

A  post  in  front  obstructed  the  view  of  Mr.  Ferguson,  but  Booth  soon  changed 
his  position,  and  again  was  clearly  seen  by  him.  He  now  had  a  knife  in  his 
right  hand,  which  he  also  laid  upon  the  railing,  as  he  already  had  his  left,  and 
vaulted  out.  As  his  legs  passed  between  the  folds  of  the  flags  decorating  the 
box,  his  spur,  which  he  wore  on  the  right  heel,  caught  the  drapery  and  brought 
it  down,  tearing  a  strip  with  it.  When  he  let  go  the  railing  he  still  clutched 
the  shining  knife.  He  crouched  as  he  fell,  falling  on  one  knee,  and  putting 
forth  both  hands  to  help  himself  to  recover  an  erect  position,  which  he  did 

with  the  rapidity  and  easy  agility  of  an  athlete. 

Having  recovered  his  equilibrium.  Booth  strode  across  the  stage  to  the  first 

entrance,  passing  behind  the  actor  on  the  stage,  (Hawk.)     When  he  reached  the 

other  side  of  the  stage,  just  ere  he  became  invisible  by  passing  into  the  entrance, 

he  looked  up,  and  Mr.  Ferguson  says  he  heard  him  say,  "  I  have  done  it,"  and 

then  lost  sight  of  him. 

Mr.  Ferguson  visited  the  theatre  yesterday,  and,  with  Miss  Harris,  the  lady 

who  was  in  the  box  with  the  President,  her  father,  Judge  Olin,  of  the  Criminal 

Court,  and  Judge  Cartter,  examined  the  box. 

The  puzzling  hole  in  the  unused  door  of  the  box  was  closely  scrutinized  by 

the  light  of  a  candle,  and  was  found  to  possess  indubitable  marks  of  having 


47 

been  whittled  with  a  knife.  The  ball  extracted  from  the  head  of  the  President 
is  of  much  larger  diameter  than  the  hole.  The  edges  of  the  hole  show  the 
marks  of  a  knife-blade  very  clearly. 

When  the  shot  had  been  fired,  Miss  Harris  rose  to  her  feet  to  call  for  water 
for  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  distinctly  noticed  a  bar  of  wood  placed  across  the  door  of 
the  little  corridor,  one  end  resting  against  the  wall,  into  which  it  was  partially 
let  by  a  cut,  or  rather  an  indentation,  scooped  in  the  wall.  The  other  end  was 
braced  against  the  opposite  part  of  the  door-frame.  This  bar,  as  the  door  opens 
inward,  would  effectually  delay,  if  not  wholly  prevent,  all  ingress  into  the  box 
from  the  dress  circle,  and  would  also  detain  the  egress  of  any  one  in  the  box. 

Miss  Harris  also  recollects  that  a  pocket  knife,  with  one  blade  open,  lay  on 
the  balustrade  of  the  box  when  she  and  the  other  three  members  of  the  Presi- 
dential party  entered  it. 

Mr.  Ferguson,  as  soon  after  the  assassination  as  he  could  get  out  of  the  theatre, 
proceeded  to  the  office  of  the  Superintendent  of  Police,  and  narrated  to  him 
what  we  have  here  detailed,  from  his  first  sight  of  Booth  to  his  final  disappear- 
ance, informing  the  Superintendent  who  the  murderer  was.  Mr.  Ferguson  then 
proceeded  to  Mv.  Peterson's  house,  where  the  President  lay,  and  requested  ad- 
mittance, to  make  known  to  the  high  authorities  there  assembled  the  name  of 
the  assassin,  and  repeat  his  testimony.  He  was  admitted,  and  stated  these  facts 
then  to  General  Augur  and  Judge  Cartter. 

The  crime  of  Booth,  unparalleled  in  history  for  its  atrocious- 
ness  and  results,  had  been  long  and  deliberately  premeditated. 
He  declared,  a  year  and  a  half  before  he  committed  the  assas- 
sination, that  "  the  man  who  killed  Abraliam  Lincoln  would 
occupy  a  higher  niche  of  fame  than  George  Washington  ;"  and 
on  another  occasion  said  to  a  theatrical  friend,  "  What  a  glo- 
rious opportunity  there  is  for  a  man  to  immortalize  himself  by 
killing  Lincoln.''* 

The  government  took  the  most  prompt  and  thorough  meas- 
ures for  the  apprehension  of  the  assassin  and  his  accomplices. 
Secretary  Stanton,  who  deserves  the  thanks  of  tlie  nation  and 
of  the  civilized  world  for  his  immediate,  efiScient,  and  success- 
ful exposure  of  the  plot  to  assassinate  President  Lincoln,  and 
for  the  arrest  of  Booth  and  all  his  accomplices,  issued  the  fol- 
lowing proclamation  : 

GOVERNMENT   REWARD    FOR   THE   APPREHENSION   OP   THE 

ASSASSINS. 

War  Department, 
WAsniNOTON,  April  20,  1865. 
The  murderer  of  our  late  beloved  President  is  still  at  large.     Fifty  thousand 
dollars  reward  will  be  paid  by  this  Department  for  his  apprehension,  in  addi- 
tion to  any  reward  offered  by  municipal  authorities  or  State  Executives. 


48 

Twenty-five  thousand  dollars  reward  will  be  paid  for  the  apprehension  of 
G.  A.  Atzerott,  sometimes  called  "  Port  Tobacco,"  one  of  Booth's  accomplices. 
Twenty-five  thousand  dollars  reward  will  be  paid  for  the  apprehension  of  Da- 
vid C.  Herold,  another  of  Booth's  accomplices.  A  liberal  reward  will  be  paid 
for  any  information  that  shall  conduce  to  the  arrest  of  either  of  the  above- 
named  criminals  or  their  accomplices.  All  persons  harboring  or  secreting  the 
said  persons,  or  either  of  them,  or  aiding  or  assisting  their  concealment  or 
escape,  will  be  treated  as  accomplices  in  the  murder  of  the  President  and  the 
attempted  assassination  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  shall  be  subject  to  trial 
before  a  military  commission  and  the  punishment  of  death. 

Let  the  stain  of  innocent  blood  be  removed  from  the  land  by  the  arrest  and 
punishment  of  the  murderers. 

All  good  citizens  are  exhorted  to  aid  public  justice  on  this  occasion.  Every 
man  should  consider  his  own  conscience  charged  with  this  solemn  duty,  and 
rest  neither  night  nor  day  until  it  be  accomplished. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON. 
Secretary  of  War 

THE   CAPTURE  AND   DEATH   OP  THE  ASSASSIN. 

The  announcement  of  the  capture  and  death  of  the  assassin 
of  the  President  was  made  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  as  fol- 
lows : 

Wae  Depaetment, 
Washington,  D.  C,  April  27,  1865. 
Major  General  Dix,  New  York: 

J.  Wilkes  Booth  and  Herold  were  chased  from  the  swamp  in  St.  Mary's 
county,  Maryland,  and  pursued  yesterday  morning  to  Garrett's  farm,  near  Port 
Royal,  on  the  Rappahannock,  by  Colonel  Baker's  force.  The  barn  in  which 
they  took  refuge  was  fired.  Booth,  in  making  his  escape,  was  shot  through  tho 
head  and  killed,  lingering  about  three  hours,  and  Herold  taken  alive. 
Booth's  body  and  Herold  are  now  here. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

The  barn  in  which  he  and  his  associate  had  secreted  them- 
selves was  surrounded  by  the  pursuing  party — a  company  of 
twenty-eight  cavalrymen  of  the  16th  New  York  regiment,  under 
Lieutenant  Dougherty.  Booth  was  commanded  to  come  out  of 
the  barn  and  surrender,  but  with  a  bold  defiance  he  replied,  "  / 
will  ticver  surrender  ;  I  ivill  never  he  taken  alive.  If  you  want 
me  you  must  take  me.     Who  do  you  take  me  for  ?  " 

Finding  he  would  not  surrender,  the  barn  was  fired,  in  order 
to  force  him  out,  at  3  o'clock  on  Wednesday  morning,  the  26th 
of  April.     He  sprang  towards  the  door  of  the  barn,  when 


49 

Sergeant  Boston  Corbett  fired  at  him  through  a  crevice  and 
inflicted  a  mortal  wound.  The  ball  struck  him  in  the  head, 
just  below  the  right  ear,  and  passing  through  came  out  about 
an  inch  above  the  left  ear.  After  he  was  wounded,  the  Sergeant 
went  into  the  barn  and  said  to  Booth,  "  Where  are  you  wound- 
ed ?  "  His  eyeballs  glaring  with  a  peculiar  brilliancy,  he  re- 
plied, "/n  the  head;  you  have  finished  me."  He  was  then 
carried  out  of  the  barn  into  the  open  air,  where  he  died  in 
four  hours. 

He  was  asked  during  the  hours  of  his  agony  if  he  had  any- 
thing to  say;  he  replied,  "  I  die  for  my  country.  Tell  mother, ^^ 
he  repeated,  ^^  I  died  for  my  country. ''  He  asked  to  see  his 
hands,  and,  as  he  gazed  upon  the  helpless  dead  members,  he  ex- 
claimed, "  Useless,  useless;'^  and  at  another  moment  of  his 
agony  he  cried,  "  Blood,  hlood.^^  He  said  several  times  during 
his  dying  hours,  "  Kill  me,  kill  me,"  to  end  his  excruciating 
pains.     He  did  not  deny  his  crime. 

His  mind,  during  those  agonizing  hours,  was  clear  and  undis- 
turbed, save  from  the  shock  of  the  wound  and  pain  ;  but  the 
brain  was  uninjured.  "  It  was,"  says  high  medical  authority, 
"  a  living,  active  mind,  with  a  helpless,  paralyzed  body,  with 
the  most  excruciating,  agonizing  pain  that  a  human  body  can 
be  subject  to.  From  the  moment  the  ball  struck  him  he  was 
dead  and  helpless,  with  a  mind  clear,  in  intense  suffering;  a 
living  witness  of  his  own  just  punishment  for  his  atrocious 
deed.  Was  there  not  the  avenging  hand  of  God  upon  him  from 
the  moment  he  exclaimed,  upon  the  stage  of  Ford's  theatre, 
'  The  South  avenged  ? '  Could  the  end  of  such  a  life  be  more 
painful,  more  dreadful,  more  appalling  ?  Was  there  not  in  it 
all  the  hand  of  an  overruling  Providence  ?  " 

The  body  was  brought  to  the  navy-yard,  and  after  its  legal 
identification,  was,  by  the  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War, 
secretly  buried,  with  a  blanket  for  its  winding  sheet,  and  a 
coarse  box  for  its  coffin,  in  a  spot  of  which  but  few  mortals 
will  ever  know. 

EXTENT  OF    THE    CONSPIRACY  TO  ASSASSINATE   THE   PKESIDEM. 

The  assassination  plot  to  murder  President  Lincoln  reached 

4 


50 

far  beyond  Booth  and  his  immediate  accomplices.    The  Secre- 
tary of  War  announced  officially  this  fact,  as  follows^ 

War  Depaetment, 
Washington,  April  24,  1865. 
Major  General  Dix,  New  York : 

This  department  has  information  that  the  President's  murder  was  organ- 
ized in  Canada  and  approved  in  Richmond. 

One  of  the  assassins,  now  in  prison,  who  attempted  to  kill  Mr.  Seward,  is  be- 
lieved to  be  one  of  the  St.  Albans  raiders. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

Ten  days  subsequent  to  this  official  announcement,  evidence 
had  become  so  accumulative  and  satisfactory  that  President 
Johnson  issued  the  following  : 

BY  THE   PRESIDENT   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES   OP   AMERICA  : 

A  PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas  it  appears  from  evidence  in  the  Bureau  of  Military  Justice  that  the 
atrocious  murder  of  the  late  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  the  attempted 
assassination  of  the  Honorable  William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  Sate,  were 
incited,  concerted,  and  procured  by  and  between  Jefferson  Davis,  late  of 
Richmond,  Virginia,  and  Jacob  Thompson,  Clement  C.  Clay,  Beverly  Tucker, 
George  N.  Saunders,  William  C.  Cleary,  and  other  rebels  and  traitors  against 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  harbored  in  Canada : 

Now,  therefore,  to  the  end  that  justice  may  be  done,  I,  Andrew  Johnson, 
President  of  the  United  States,  do  offer  and  promise  for  the  arrest  of  said  per- 
sons, or  either  of  them,  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  so  that  they  can 
be  brought  to  trial,  the  following  rewards : 

One  Hundred  Thousand  Dollars  for  the  arrest  of  Jefferson  Davis. 

Twenty-five  thousand  Dollars  for  the  arrest  of  Clement  C.  Clay. 

Twenty-five  Thousand  Dollars  for  the  arrest  of  Jacob  Thompson,  late  of 
Mississippi. 

Twenty-five  Thousand  Dollars  for  the  arrest  of  George  N.  Saunders. 

Twenty-five  Thousand  Dollars  for  the  arrest  of  Beverly  Tucker. 

Ten  Thousand  Dollars  for  the  arrest  of  William  C.  Cleary,  late  clerk  of  Cle- 
ment C.  Clay. 

The  Provost  Marshal  General  of  the  United  States  is  directed  to  cause  a  de- 
scription of  said  persons,  with  notice  of  the  above  rewards,  to  be  published. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal  of 
the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  second  day  of  May,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-five,  and  of  the  independ- 
l-^*  ^'J  ence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty-fifth. 

ANDREW  JOHNSON. 
By  the  President : 

W.  HuNTEE,  Acting  Secretary  of  State. 


51 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  assassin  of  President  Lincoln  and 
the  would-be  murderer  of  Secretary  Seward  have  developed  a 
well-laid  and  deliberately  matured  plan  of  assassination  and 
infamous  murder  and  arson  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of 
crime.  Many  unsuspected  and  unsuspecting  parties  are  in- 
volved, and  the  evidence  is  complete  to  show  that  it  was 
neither  the  freak  of  a  madman  nor  an  act  of  individual  hate, 
but  a  scheme  concocted  by  leaders  of  the  rebellion,  and  relied 
upon  by  them  in  the  hour  of  their  most  desperate  need  as  one 
of  the  means  of  success  in  their  great  treasonable  enterprise. 

The  plot  of  assassination  included  not  only  President  Lincoln, 
but  William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State,  Vice  President 
Andrew  Johnson,  Lieutenant  General  U.  S.  Grant,  and  other 
high  officers  of  the  government.  The  hope  was  to  throw  the 
Government  into  anarchy  and  give  the  last  desperate  chance 
for  the  great  rebellion  to  succeed.  The  providence  of  God  and 
the  stable  nature  of  our  institutions  defeated  this  diabolical 
conspiracy,  except  in  the  case  of  our  honored  and  beloved  Pres- 
ident and  the  severe  wounds  inflicted  upon  the  distinguished 
Secretary  of  State. 

The  guilt  of  this  atrocious  conspiracy  is  greatly  increased  by 
the  merciful  character  of  President  Lincoln  and  his  "  charity 
for  all,"  even  to  the  most  criminal  leaders  of  the  rebellion. 
Among  his  last  official  acts  was  his  signature  and  seal  to  a 
permit  to  Jacob  Thompson,  a  former  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
under  President  Buchanan,  to  leave  the  country  for  Europe. 

MILITARY   COMMISSION   FOR  THE   TRIAL   OP   THE  ACCOMPLICES 

OP   BOOTH. 

The  Commission  met  on  the  9th  of  May,  1865,  in  Washing- 
ton city,  and  consisted  of  the  following  officers  and  civilians : 
Major  General  David  Hunter,  U.  S.  V.  ;  Major  General  Lew. 
Wallace,  U.  S.  V.;  Brevet  Major  General  August  Y.  Kautz, 
U.  S.  V.  ;  Brigadier  General  Alvin  P.  Howe,  U.  S.  V.;  Brig- 
adier General  Robert  S.  Foster,  U.  S.  Y.  ;  Brevet  Brigadier 
General  James  A.  Ekin,  U.  S.  Y.  ;  Brigadier  General  T.  M. 
Harris,  U.  S.  Y.  ;  Brevet  Colonel  C.  H.  Tompkins,  U.  S.  A.  ; 
Brigadier  General  Joseph  Holt,  Judge  Advocate  and  Recorder; 


52 

and  John  A.Bingham  and  Brevet  Colonel  Burnett  as  Assistant 
Judge  Advocates.  The  objects  and  authority  of  the  Commis- 
sion are  found  in  the  following  order  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States : 

Executive  Chambee, 
"Washington  City,  May  1,  1865. 

Whereas  the  Attorney  General  of  the  United  States  hath  given  his  opinion : 

"  That  the  persons  implicated  in  the  murder  of  the  late  President,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  and  the  attempted  assassination  of  the  Honorable  William  H.  Seward, 
Secretary  of  State,  and  in  an  alleged  conspiracy  to  assassinate  other  officers  of 
the  Federal  Government  at  Washington  city,  and  their  aiders  and  abettors, 
are  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  and  legally  triable  before  a  military  commis- 
sion:" 

It  is  ordered:  1st.  That  the  Assistant  Adjutant  General  detail  nine  com- 
petent military  officers  to  serve  as  a  commission  for  the  trial  of  said  parties, 
and  that  the  Judge  Advocate  General  proceed  to  prefer  charges  against  said 
parties  for  their  alleged  offences,  and  bring  them  to  trial  before  said  military 
commission ;  that  said  trial  or  trials  be  conducted  by  the  said  Judge  Advocate 
General,  and,  as  recorder  thereof,  in  person,  aided  by  such  assistant  or  special 
judge  advocates  as  he  may  designate;  and  that  said  trials  be  conducted  with 
all  diligence  consistent  with  the  ends  of  justice ;  the  said  commission  to  sit  with- 
out regard  to  hours. 

2d.  That  Brevet  Major  General  Hartranft  be  assigned  to  duty  as  special 
provost  marshal  general  for  the  purposes  of  said  trial  and  attendance  upon  said 
commission  and  the  execution  of  its  mandates. 

3d.  That  the  said  commission  establish  such  order  or  rules  of  proceeding  as 
may  avoid  unnecessary  delay  and  conduce  to  the  ends  of  public  justice. 

ANDREW  JOHNSON. 

Adjutant  General's  Office, 

Washington,  D.  C.,  May  6, 1865. 

Official  copy. 

W.  A.  Nichols, 

Assistant  Adjutant  General, 

The  following  are  the  names  of  the  prisoners  arraigned  as 
accomplices  in  the  assassination  of  the  President,  viz  :  David 
E.  Herold,  Lewis  Payne,  Michael  O'Laughlin,  Samuel  E.  Mudd, 
Samuel  B.  Arnold,  George  A.  Atzerott,  and  Mary  E.  S»irrj^tt, 
all  of  whom  plead  not  guilty. 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON. 


The  distressing  event  that  has  transferred  the  Vice  President 
of  the  United  States  into  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  the  country- 
makes  it  a  matter  of  interest  to  know  what  provisions  exist 
in  the  case  of  the  death  of  both  the  President  and  Vice  Presi- 
dent at  the  same  time.  The  sixth  section  of  the  second  article 
of  the  Constitution  contains  all  that  is  said  in  that  instrument 
on  the  subject,  and  is  as  follows  : 

In  case  of  the  removal  of  the  President  from  office,  or  of  his  death,  resigna- 
tion, or  inability  to  discharge  the  duties  of  said  office,  the  same  shall  devolve 
on  the  Vice  President.  And  the  Congress  may  by  law  provide  for  the  case  of 
removal,  death,  resignation,  or  inability  of  the  President  and  Vice  President, 
declaring  what  officer  shall  then  act  as  President,  and  such  officer  shall  act 
accordingly  until  the  disability  be  removed,  or  a  President  shall  be  elected. 

Pursuant  of  this  constitutional  provision,  in  an  act  of  Con- 
gress approved  March  1st,  1792,  it  was  provided  as  follows  : 

Section  9.  And  he  it  further  enacted.  That  in  case  of  removal,  death,  resig- 
nation, or  inability,  both  of  the  President  and  Vice  President  of  the  United 
States,  the  President  of  the  Senate  pro  tempore,  and  in  case  there  shall  be  no 
President  of  the  Senate,  then  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  for 
the  time  being,  shall  act  as  President  of  the  United  States  until  the  disability 
be  removed,  or  a  President  shall  be  elected. 

•  Two  previous  instances  had  occurred  in  the  history  of  the 
government  in  whieh  the  death  of  the  Presidents  devolved  the 
duties  of  the  office  on  the  Vice  Presidents.  The  first  was  that 
of  President  William  Henry  Harrison,  who  died  on  the  7th  of 
April,  1841,  and  was  succeeded  by  Vice  President  John  Tyler, 
who  became  one  of  the  influential  leaders  in  the  great  rebellion. 

53 


64 

The  other  was  the  death  of  President  Zachary  Taylor,  who 
died  on  the  9th  of  July,  1849,  and  was  succeeded  by  Vice  Presi- 
dent Millard  Fillmore. 

After  the  death  of  President  Lincoln,  early  on  Saturday 
morning,  the  15th  of  April,  1865,  Attorney  General  Speed 
waited  upon  Hon.  Andrew  Johnson,  Vice  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  officially  informed  him  of  the  sudden  and 
unexpected  decease  of  President  Lincoln,  and  stated  that  an 
early  hour  might  be  appointed  for  the  inauguration  of  his  suc- 
cessor.    The  following  communication  was  handed  to  him  : 

■Washington  City,  D.  C,  April  15,  1865. 

Sir  :  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  was  shot  by  an  as- 
sassin last  evening,  at  Ford's  Theatre,  in  this  city,  and  died  at  the  hour  of  22 
minutes  after  7  o'clock. 

About  the  same  time  at  which  the  President  was  shot,  an  assassin  entered  the 
sick  chamber  of  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State,  and  stabbed  him  in 
several  places  in  the  throat,  neck,  and  face,  severely  if  not  mortally  wounding 
him.  Other  members  of  the  Secretary's  family  were  dangerously  wounded  by 
the  assassin  while  making  his  escape.  By  the  death  of  President  Lincoln, 
the  office  of  President  has  devolved,  under  the  Constitution,  upon  you.  The 
emergency  of  the  Government  demands  that  you  should  immediately  qualify 
according  to  the  requirements  of  the  Constitution,  and  enter  upon  the  duties  of 
President  of  the  United  States.  If  you  will  please  make  known  your  pleasure, 
Buch  arrangements  as  you  deem  proper  will  be  made. 

Your  obedient  servants, 

HUGH  Mcculloch, 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 
GIDEON  WELLES, 

Secretary  of  the  Navy. 
WM.  DENNISON, 

Postmaster  General. 
J.  P.  USHER, 

Secretary  of  the  Interior. 
JAMES  SPEED, 

Attorney  General. 
To  Andeew  Johnson, 

Vice  President  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Johnson  requested  that  the  ceremony  should  take  place 
at  his  rooms  at  the  Kirkwood  House,  in  Washington  city,  at 
ten  o'clock  in  the  morning.    Hon.  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Chief  Jus- 


55 

tice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  tlie  United  States,  was  notified  of 
the  fact,  and  desired  to  be  in  attendance  to  administer  the  oath 
of  office.  At  the  above-named  hour  the  following  gentlemen 
assembled  in  the  Vice  President's  room  to  participate  in  the 
ceremony  :  Hon.  Salmon  P.  Chase  ;  Hon.  Hugh  McCulloch, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  Mr.  Attorney  General  Speed;  F.  P. 
Blair,  Sr. ;  Hon.  Montgomery  Blair  ;  Senators  Foot,  of  "Ver- 
mont ;  Ramsey,  of  Minnesota  ;  Yates,  of  Hlinois  ;  Stewart,  of 
Nevada  ;  Hale,  of  New  Hampshire  ;  and  General  Farnsworth, 
of  Illinois. 

After  the  presentation  of  the  above  letter,  the  Chief  Justice, 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  administered  the  following  oath  to  Mr.  John- 
son : 

I  do  solemnly  swear  that  I  will  faithfully  execute  the  office  of  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  will,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  preserve,  protect,  and 
defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

After  receiving  the  oath,  and  being  declared  President  of  tho 
United  States,  Mr.  Johnson  remarked  : 

Gentlemen:  I  must  be  permitted  to  say  that  I  have  been  almost  over- 
whelmed by  the  announcement  of  the  sad  event  which  has  so  recently  occurred. 
I  feel  incompetent  to  perform  duties  so  important  and  responsible  as  those  which 
have  been  so  unexpectedly  thrown  upon  me.  As  to  an  indication  of  any  policy 
which  may  be  pursued  by  me  in  the  administration  of  the  Government,  I 
have  to  say  that  that  must  be  left  for  development  as  the  administration  pro- 
gresses. The  message  or  declaration  must  be  made  by  the  acts  as  they  transpire. 
The  only  assurance  that  I  can  now  give  of  the  future  is  reference  to  the  past. 
The  course  which  I  have  taken  in  the  past,  in  connection  with  this  rebellion, 
must  be  regarded  as  a  guarantee  of  the  future.  My  past  public  life,  which  has 
been  long  and  laborious,  has  been  founded,  as  I  in  good  conscience  believe,  upon 
a  great  principle  of  right  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  things.  The  best  ener- 
gies of  my  life  have  been  spent  in  endeavoring  to  establish  and  perpetuate  the 
principles  of  free  government,  and  I  believe  that  the  Government,  in  passing 
through  its  present  perils,  will  settle  down  upon  principles  consonant  with 
popular  rights  more  permanent  and  enduring  than  heretofore.  I  must  be  per- 
mitted to  say,  if  I  understand  the  feelings  of  my  own  heart,  that  I  have  long 
labored  to  ameliorate  and  elevate  the  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  the  Ameri- 
can people.  Toil,  and  an  honest  advocacy  of  the  great  principles  of  free  gov- 
ernment, have  been  my  lot.  Duties  have  been  mine  ;  consequences  are  God's. 
This  has  been  the  foundation  of  my  political  creed,  and  I  feel  that  in  the  end 
the  Government  will  triumph,  and  that  these  great  principles  will  be  perma- 
nently established.     In  conclusion,  gentlemen,  let  me  say  that  I  want  your 


f 


6 


encouragement  and  countenance.  I  shall  ask  and  rely  upon  you  and  others  in 
carrying  the  Government  through  its  present  perils.  I  feel,  in  making  this 
request,  that  it  will  be  heartily  responded  to  by  you,  and  all  other  patriots 
and  lovers  of  the  rights  and  interests  of  a  free  people. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  above  remarks,  the  President  re- 
ceived the  kind  wishes  of  the  friends  by  whom  he  was  sur- 
rounded, and  a  few  minutes  were  devoted  to  conversation.  All 
were  deeply  impressed  with  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion,  and 
the  recent  sad  occurrence  that  caused  the  necessity  for  the 
speedy  inauguration  of  the  President  was  gravely  discussed. 
Mr.  Johnson  was  in  fine  health,  and  had  an  earnest  sense  of  the 
important  trust  that  had  been  confided  to  him. 

OFFICIAL   ANNOUNCEMENT   OF  THE  INSTALLATION   OF   PRESIDENT 

JOHNSON. 

Wae  Department, 

,  Washington,  April  15 — 3  P.  M. 

Major  General  Drx,  New  York : 

Official  notice  of  the  death  of  the  late  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  was 
given  by  the  heads  of  departments  this  morning  to  Andrew  Johnson,  Vice 
President,  upon  whom  the  Constitution  devolved  the  office  of  President.  Mr. 
Johnson,  upon  receiving  this  notice,  appeared  before  the  Hon.  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  and  took  the  oath  of  office  as  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  assumed  its  duties  and  functions.  At  12  o'clock  the 
President  met  the  heads  of  Departments  in  Cabinet  meeting  at  the  Treasury 
building,  and  among  other  business,  the  following  was  transacted : 

First.  The  arrangements  for  the  funeral  of  the  late  President  were  referred  to 
the  several  Secretaries,  as  far  as  relates  to  their  respective  departments. 

Second.  William  Hunter,  Esq.,  was  appointed  Acting  Secretary  of  State 
during  the  disability  of  Mr.  Seward  and  his  son,  Frederick  Seward,  the  Assist- 
ant Secretary. 

Third.  The  President  formally  announced  that  he  desired  to  retain  the  present 
Secretaries  of  Departments  of  his  Cabinet,  and  they  would  go  on  and  discharge 
their  respective  duties  in  the  same  manner  as  before  the  deplorable  event  that 
had  changed  the  head  of  the  government. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

War  Department, 
Washington,  April  16, 1865. 
Lieutenant  General  U.  S.  Grant, 

U.  S.  Army,  Com'dg  Armies  of  the  United  States,  Washington,  D.  C. : 
General  :  You  will  please  announce  by  general  order  to  the  armies  of  the 
United  States  that  on  Saturday,  the  15th  day  of  April,  1865,  by  reason  of  the 


57 

death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States  devolved 
\ipon  Andrew  Johnson,  Vice  President,  who,  on  the  same  day,  took  the  official 
oath  prescribed  for  the  President,  and  entered  upon  the  duties  of  that  office. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

War  Depaetment,  Adjutant  General's  Office, 
Washington,  April  16,  1865. 
General  Orders  No.  67. 

It  is  hereby  announced  to  the  armies  of  the  United  States  that  on  Saturday, 
the  15th  day  of  April,  1865,  by  reason  of  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 
office  of  President  of  the  United  States  devolved  upon  Andrew  Johnson,  Vice 
President,  who,  on  the  same  day,  took  the  official  oath  prescribed  for  the  Presi- 
dent, and  entered  upon  the  duties  of  that  office. 
By  command  of  Lieutenant  General  Grant: 

W.  A.  NICHOLS, 
Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

John  A.  Stewart,  Esq.,  New  York : 

My  Dear  Sir  :  You  will  perceive  that  the  new  administration  is  inaugurated, 
and  the  wheels  of  government  are  not  stopped  for  a  moment.  My  hope  is,  and 
my  belief  is,  that  this  great  national  calamity  will  teach  to  the  world  a  lesson 
which  will  be  of  the  most  beneficial  character  to  our  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment ;  that  it  will  show  that  the  assassination  of  our  Chief  Magistrate  does  not 
affect  in  the  slightest  degree  the  permanence  of  our  institutions,  or  the  regular 
administration  of  the  laws ;  that  an  event  which  would  have  shaken  any  other 
country  to  the  centre,  does  not  even  stagger  for  a  moment  a  government  like 
ours. 

Very  truly  yours, 

H.  Mcculloch. 


MEETING  OF  SENATORS  AND  MEMBERS  OF  THE 
HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 


At  a  meeting  of  members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, convened  at  the  Capitol,  on  Monday,  April  17, 
1865,  at  noon,  Hon.  Lafayette  S.  Foster,  of  Connecticut,  Presi- 
dent pro  tern,  of  the  Senate,  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  Hon. 
Schuyler  Colfax,  of  Indiana,  chosen  as  Secretary. 

Senator  Foot,  of  Vermont,  stated  the  object  of  the  meeting 
to  be  to  make  arrangements  relative  to  the  funeral  of  the  de- 
ceased President  of  the  United  States. 

On  motion  of  Senator  Sumner,  of  Massachusetts,  a  committee 
of  five  members  from  each  House  was  ordered  to  report  at  4 
P.  M.  to-day,  what  action  it  is  fitting  for  this  meeting  to  take. 
The  chairman  appointed  Senators  Sumner,  of  Massachusetts ; 
Harris,  of  New  York  ;  Johnson,  of  Maryland  ;  Ramsey,  of 
Minnesota ;  and  Conness,  of  California ;  and  Representatives 
Washburne,  of  Illinois ;  Smith,  of  Kentucky  ;  Schenck,  of  Ohio  ; 
Pike,  of  Maine ;  and  Coflfroth,  of  Pennsylvania  ;  and,  on  mo- 
tion of  Representative  Schenck,  the  chairman  and  secretary 
were  added  to  the  committee,  and  the  meeting  adjourned  till 
4  P.  M. 

4  P.  M.,  JliDvil  17, 1865. — The  meeting  convened  pursuant  to 
adjournment.  Mr.  Sumner,  from  the  committee  heretofore  ap- 
pointed, reported  that  they  had  selected  as  pall-bearers,  on  the 
part  of  the  Senate,  Mr.  Foster,  of  Connecticut ;  Mr.  Morgan, 
of  New  York ;  Mr.  Johnson,  of  Maryland ;  Mr.  Yates,  of  Il- 
linois ;  Mr.  Wade,  of  Ohio  ;  and  Mr.  Conness,  of  California. 
On  the  part  of  the  House:  Mr.  Dawes,  of  Massachusetts;  Mr. 

59 


60 

Coflfroth,  of  Pennsylvania  ;  Mr.  Smith,  of  Kentucky  ;  Mr.  Col- 
fax, of  Indiana;  Mr.  Worthington,  of  Nevada,  and  Mr.  Wash- 
burne,  of  Illinois. 

They  also  recommended  the  appointment  of  one  member  of 
Congress  from  each  State  and  Territory  to  act  us  a  Congres- 
sional Committee,  to  accompany  the  remains  of  the  late  Presi- 
dent to  Illinois,  and  present  the  following  names  as  such  com- 
mittee, the  chairman  of  this  meeting  to  have  the  authority  of 
appointing  hereafter  from  the  States  and  Territories  not  repre- 
sented to-day,  from  which  members  may  be  present  by  the  day 
of  the  funeral. 

The  committee  also  recommended  the  following  as  the  Con- 
gressional Committee  to  accompany  the  remains  of  the  late 
President  :  Maine,  Mr.  Pike ;  Minnesota,  Mr.  Ramsey ;  New 
Hampshire,  Mr.  E.  H.  Rollins ;  Oregon,  Mr.  Williams  ;  Ver- 
mont, Mr.  Foot ;  Kansas,  Mr.  S.  Clarke ;  Massachusetts,  Mr. 
Sumner ;  West  Virginia,  Mr.  Whaley  ;  Rhode  Island,  Mr. 
Anthony;  Nevada,  Mr.  Nye;  Connecticut,  Mr.  Dixon;  New 
York,  Mr.  Harris  ;  New  Jersey,  Mr.  Newell ;  Pennsylvania. 
Mr.  Cowan  ;  Nebraska,  Mr.  Hitchcock ;  Colorado,  Mr.  Brad- 
ford ;  Maryland,  Mr.  Phelps  ;  Dakotah,  Mr.  Todd  ;  Ohio,  Mr. 
Schenck  ;  Kentucky,  Mr.  Smith  ;  Idaho,  Mr.  Wallace  ;  Indiana, 
Mr.  Julian  ;  Illinois,  the  delegation  ;  Michigan,  Mr.  Chandler  ; 
Iowa,  Mr.  Harlan  ;  California,  Mr.  Shannon. 

They  also  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following  resolu- 
tion : 

Resolved,  That  the  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives, with  their  necessary  assistants,  be  requested  to  attend  the  committee  ac- 
companying the  remains  of  the  late  President,  and  make  all  the  necessary 
arrangements. 

All  of  which  was  concurred  in  unanimously. 
Mr.  Sumner,  of  the  same  committee,  also  reported  the  follow- 
ing, which  was  unanimously  agreed  to  : 

The  members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  novr  assembled  in 
Washington,  humbly  confessing  their  dependence  upon  Almighty  God,  who 
rules  all  that  is  done  for  human  good,  make  haste  at  this  informal  meeting  to 
express  the  emotions  with  which  they  have  been  filled  by  the  appalling  tragedy 


61 

which  has  deprived  the  nation  of  its  head,  and  covered  the  land  with  mourn- 
ing, and,  in  further  declaration  of  their  sentiments,  unanimously 

Resolve,  1.  That  in  testimony  of  veneration  and  affection  for  the  illus- 
trious dead,  who  has  been  permitted,  under  Providence,  to  do  so  much  for  his 
country  and  for  liberty,  they  will  unite  in  the  funeral  services,  and  by  an  ap- 
propriate committee  will  accompany  the  remains  to  the  burial  in  the  State  from 
which  he  was  taken  for  the  national  service. 

2.  That  in  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  who,  by  the  benignant  favor  of 
Republican  institutions,  rose  from  humble  beginnings  to  heights  of  power  and 
fame,  they  recognize  an  example  of  purity,  simplicity,  and  virtue  which  should 
be  a  lesson  to  mankind ;  while  in  his  death  they  recognize  a  martyr,  whose 
memory  will  become  more  precious  as  man  learns  to  prize  those  principles  of 
constitutional  order,  and  those  rights — civil,  political,  and  humane — for  which 
he  was  made  a  sacrifice. 

3.  That  they  invite  the  President  of  the  United  States,  by  solemn  proclama- 
tion, to  recommend  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  assemble,  on  a  day  to 
be  appointed  by  him,  publicly  to  testify  their  grief,  and  to  dwell  on  the  good 
which  has  been  done  on  earth  by  him  whom  we  now  mourn. 

4.  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  communicated  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  also  that  a  copy  be  communicated  to  the  afflicted  widow  of 
the  late  President,  as  an  expression  of  sj'mpathy  in  her  greatest  bereavement. 

And  the  meeting  adjourned. 

L.  S.  FOSTER,  Chairman. 
Schuyler  Colfax,  Secretary. 


MEETING  OF  CLERGYMEN-THEIR  VISIT  TO 
PRESIDENT  JOHNSON. 


The  Ministers  of  the  diflferent  religious  denominations  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  convened  in  the  First  Baptist  Church,  on 
Thirteenth  street,  at  9  o'clock,  A.  M.,  April  17,  1865,  in  pur- 
suance of  a  call  of  six  of  their  number,  which  had  been  pub- 
lished in  the  daily  papers,  as  follows  : 

To  Clergymen  of  all  Religious  Denominations  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

Beloved  Brethren  :  You  are  each  and  all  respectfully  requested  to  meet 
in  the  First  Baptist  Church,  on  13th  street,  Eev.  Dr.  Gillette,  at  9  o'clock, 
Monday  morning,  the  17th  inst.,  to  consider  and  take  such  action  as  may  seem 
■wise  and  proper  with  reference  to  the  sore  bereavement  our  country  has 
Buffered  in  the  sudden  decease  of  our  beloved  Chief  Magistrate,  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

P.  D.  GURLEY, 
Pastor  of  New  York  Ave.  Preshyterian  Church. 
A.  D.  GILLETTE, 

Pastor  of  First  Baptist  Church. 
CHAS.  H.  HALL, 

Pector  of  Epiphany  Parish. 

W.  M.  D.  EYAN, 
Foundry  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

J.  G.  BUTLER, 

Pastor  Lutheran  Church. 

WM.  H.  CHANNING, 

Pastor  of  Unitarian  Church. 

The  meeting  having  been  called  to  order,  the  Rev.  J.  G. 
Butler,  Pastor  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  nominated,  and,  on  his 

63 


64 

motion,  tlie  Rev.  P.  D.  Gurley,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  the  New  York 
Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,  was  unanimously  called  to  the 
Chair.  After  a  few  impressive  remarks,  he  opened  the  meet- 
ing by  a  solemn  invocation  of  the  Divine  blessing. 

On  motion,  the  Rev.  C.  H.  Hall,  D.  D.,  was  elected  Secre- 
tary. 

It  was  then 

Eesolved,  That  a  Committee  of  one  member  from  eacli  of  the  religioti3  de  • 
nominations  be  appointed  to  draft  and  present  to  the  meeting  an  appropriate 
Preamble  and  Resolutions,  upon  the  subject  for  which  the  Clergy  were  convened. 

On  motion 

Resolved,  That  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  be  first  appointed. 

Whereupon,  on  nomination,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hall  was  elected 
Chairman  of  the  Committee. 

On  nominations  by  several  members,  the  following  ministers 
were  chosen  as  the  Committee :  Rev.  "W.  B.  Edwards,  D.  D., 
of  the  Methodist  Church  ;  Rev.  A.  D.  Gillette,  D.  D.,  of  the 
Baptist  Church;  Rev.  Septimus  Tustin,  D.  D.,  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  0.  S.  ;  Rev.  J.  N.  Coombs,  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  N.  S.  ;  Rev.  Wm.  F.  Butler,  of  the  African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Zion  Church  ;  Rev.  Daniel  Bowers,  Methodist  Pro- 
testant Church  ;  Rev.  J.  Geo.  Butler,  of  the  Lutheran  Church  ; 
Rev.  Wm.  H.  Channing,  D.  D.,  of  the  Unitarian  Church  ;  Rev. 
Jabez  Fox,  of  the  New  Jerusalem  Church. 

While  the  Committee  were  in  session,  in  the  Pastor's  study, 
the  meeting  engaged  in  religious  exercises. 

The  Committee  returned,  and,  by  their  Chairman,  reported 
the  foUowino-  Preamble  and  Resolutions  : 


'O 


The  life  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Nation  has  been  taken  by  the  hand 
of  an  assassin,  without  one  circumstance  to  relieve  the  barbarity  of  the  deed, 
or  save  it  froni  the  universal  execration  of  the  civilized  world ;  in  the  hour  of 
his  respite,  after  unusual  toils  in  the  holiest  labors  of  his  high  position ;  the 
efforts  to  re-establish  peace  and  quietness  in  this  distracted  country  ;  to  extend 
to  all  offenders  against  the  Constitution  and  Laws  the  largest  amnesty;  to  hold 
out  the  most  generous  terms  of  reconciliation  and  concord,  and  to  limit,  as  far 
as  possible  by  human  agencies,  the  sufferings  and  miseries  of  this  once  happy 


65 

and  united  people — a  murder  so  remorseless  and  iniquitous,  that  pity  for  the 
misguided  criminal  is  lost  in  detestation  and  abhorrence  of  his  crime. 

The  sick  room  of  the  distinguished  Statesman  who  co-operated  with  the 
President  in  all  his  plans  for  a  restoration  of  this  Union  upon  a  sound  and  per- 
manent basis,  whose  helpless  condition  at  the  time  would  have  disarmed  the 
rage  of  all  ordinary  malice,  has  been  invaded  by  an  atrocious  murderer,  whose 
fell  thirst  for  blood  would  stop  at  no  amount  of  violence,  and  the  very  excess 
of  whose  evil  passions  alone  caused  his  brutal  hand  to  strike  wide  of  his  mark  ; 
and  a  peaceful  home  has  been  filled  in  a  few  short  moments  with  a  burden  of 
sorrow  and  anguish  too  dreadful  to  contemplate  with  common  control  of 
reason. 

A  tragedy  has  been  accomplished  in  each  case  which  fills  the  land  with 
mourning,  draws  again  the  gloomy  pall  over  the  signs  of  our  national  re- 
joicing, leads  us  to  ask  in  trembling  anxiety,  0  Lord!  how  long?  and  pol- 
lutes our  city  with  blood  which  cries  from  the  ground  and  enters  into  the  eara 
of  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  Had  the  victim  in  either  case  been  an  ordinary  man 
there  would  be  reason  enough  for  our  expression  of  righteous  indignation  j 
but  when  the  lives  of  the  chief  men  of  the  Nation  have  been  assaulted  withi 
intentions  so  vile  and  iniquitous,  of  whose  limit  we  can  only  form  wild  con  • 
lectures,  we  are  called  upon  to  speak  out  and  unite  in  expressing  the  senti- 
ments of  all   civilized,    not  to   say   Christian  men :  therefore, 

Resolved,  That,  in  our  belief,  the  crime  of  murder,  when  committed 
against  the  person  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  a  great  nation,  invades  the 
person  of  God's  anointed,  and  defies  the  sovereignty  of  the  Almighty,  whose 
servant  he  is  ;  has  received  the  severest  condemnation  of  the  sacred  writer?., 
and  masses  in  one  black  epitome  the  sum  of  all  the  crimes  against  the 
whole  people,  thus  reached  in  destroying  their  head — chosen  once,  and  again 
in  this  instance,  by  the  votes  of  a  free  nation — and  leaves  all  ordinary  blood- 
guiltiness  lagging  far  behind  it.  The  apostle  teaches  us,  that  "</ie  Powers 
that  he  are  ordained  of  Ood."  The  President  of  the  United  States  and  the  Sec- 
retary of  State  are  such  ordained  Powers,  whose  persons  and  lives  until  now 
have  ever  been  held  sacred  and  inviolable  by  all  men,  good  and  evil.  We  ex- 
press more  in  sorrow  than  in  anger  our  instinctive  detestation  of  the  crime^ 
and  profound  grief  that  the  history  of  this  free  people  and  this  once  peaceful 
city  has  been  stained  by  a  page  which  exceeds  in  horror  the  attempted  0/ 
successful  murders  of  rulers  in  any  nation  of  past  or  modern  times.  "  Ven- 
geance belongeth  unto  the  Lord!"  but  righteous  judgment  according  to  law  is 
committed  by  Him  to  men.  May  He  show  His  power  in  arresting  the  criminals 
in  these 'assassinations,  and  purifying  our  land  from  the  pollution  of  their  guilt! 

Resolved,  That  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  this  nation,  as  a  man  and  as  our 
Ruler,  deserved  the  sincere  respect  of  all  good  and  loyal  citizens  for  his  hon- 
esty and  integrity  of  purpose,  manifested  in  his  unremitted  endeavors  to  carry 
the  nation  through  its  unexampled  trials  and  perils ;  in  his  unfeigned,  hearty 
zeal  for  the  rights  of  all  men  and  races  committed  to  his  trust  by  Almighty  God 
and  by  the  votes  of  his  countrymen ;  for  his  mercy  and  leniency  to  all  misguided 
and  erring  citizens;  for  his  humble  walk  and  conversation  in  his  high  office; 
for  his  unabated  zeal  in  tempering  the  horrors  of  civil  war  with  the  condona- 
5 


66 

dons  of  executive  clemency,  and  for  his  resolute  maintenance  of  the  majesty  of 
the  law,  with  the  largest  possible  charity  consistent  with  its  sacred  promptings. 
The  erring  and  the  guilty  have  lost  a  friendly  heart,  to  which  they  could 
always  appeal  in  their  hour  of  anguish  and  despair.  The  country  has  lost  a 
head,  which  it  trusted  with  generous  impulse  from  its  experience  of  his  honesty 
and  ability.  We  mourn  a  man  who  will  henceforth  be  enshrined  in  the  grateful 
memories  of  millions,  as  second  to  none  of  his  predecessors  in  patriotism  and 
philanthropy. 

Resolved,  That  it  becomes  us,  in  this  troubled  hour,  to  recall  our  faith  in  the 
sovereign  Providence  of  Almighty  God  in  guiding  the  destiny  of  this  great 
nation.  He  has  scourged  us  bitterly  for  our  sins — in  this  sad  calamity,  most 
bitterly.  We  bow  to  His  divine  allotment,  and  confessing  the  sins  which  have 
deserved  punishment,  pray  with  one  heart,  that  He,  as  He  alone  can  do  it,  may 
bring  light  out  of  darkness,  and  good  out  of  evil,  and  make  the  manifold  forms 
of  human  suffering  now  darkening  our  land  effectual  to  work  out  in  us  and  our 
fellow-citizens  a  true  conversion  and  amendment  of  life ;  that  among  us,  fruits 
meet  for  repentance  may  be  abundantly  brought  forth,  and  that  the  glory  of 
His  grace  may  be  made  known  among  all  nations,  now  and  to  future  genera- 
tions. 

Resolved,  That  as  residents  of  the  Capital,  we  record  and  proclaim  our  com- 
mon judgment  of  reverence  and  esteem  for  the  late  Chief  Magistrate,  as  a  citizen 
among  us,  known  to  all  men  for  his  virtues,  kind  to  all  and  easy  to  be  entreated, 
ready  of  access  to  the  humblest  of  his  neighbors,  affable  and  unassuming  in  his 
address,  and  bearing  his  high  office  in  the  nation  with  an  evident  desire  to  use 
it  for  the  good  of  all  parties — even  the  unthankful  and  the  unworthy.  If  his 
political  enemies  charge  him  with  errors  of  the  head,  we  shall  search  here  in  vain 
for  those  who  will  indict  him  for  errors  of  the  heart:  or  if  there  were  any  such, 
they  were  those  that  leaned  to  clemency  and  pity.  Few  men  could  have  passed 
through  his  trials  during  this  civil  war  with  so  sincere  and  universal  respect 
and  affection  from  his  fellow-citizens.  Few  would  have  wrung  the  hearts  of  all 
who  knew  him  by  such  an  untimely  fate  ! 

Resolved,  That  we  respectfully  offer  to  the  distinguished  Statesman  whose  as- 
sassination was  intended  as  the  companion  act  and  complement  of  this  great 
crime,  our  deep  sympathy,  and  the  assurance  of  our  prayers  for  his  recovery, 
and  that  of  the  son  who  so  bravely  cast  himself  in  the  path  of  the  destroyer ; 
and  for  his  family,  that  God  would  vouchsafe  them  the  comforting  strength 
which  they  need,  and  sustain  them  in  this  hour  of  their  grief  and  anxiety. 

Resolved,  That  we  present  to  the  widow  and  family  of  the  late  President  of 
the  United  States  our  assurance  of  sympathy  in  their  loss — our  primers  for 
them,  that  the  Father  of  us  all  would  take  them  into  His  keeping,  and  heal  the 
wounds  which  human  affection  can  only  deplore,  but  may  not  reach. 

Resolved,  That,  as  Ministers  of  religion  of  this  District,  we  commend  to  the 
congregations  under  our  charge  the  devout  consideration  of  the  dreadful  calam- 
ity which  has  befallen  us  and  them ;  that  we  also  commend  to  their  prayers  the 
afflicted  families  which  have  been  called  to  mourn. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  mark  of  respect,  we  wear  the  usual  badge  of  mourning 
upon  the  left  arm  for  sixty  days,  and  that  we  attend  the.funeral  services  in  a  body. 


67 

Resolved,  That  whilst,  with  a  depth  of  sorrow  which  we  have  no  words  ade- 
quately to  express,  we  deplore  the  fall  of  our  late  Chief  Magistrate,  we  never- 
theless rest  in  the  sincere  hope  that  in  the  acknowledged  ability,  unyielding  in- 
tegrity, and  thoroughly  tried  patriotism  of  his  successor,  our  afflicted  and  sor- 
rowing countrymen  will  find  a  happy  guaranty  that  the  interests  of  the  Eepublic 
will  suffer  no  detriment  by  his  accession  to  the  Executive  chair. 

Resolved,  That  we,  as  a  body  representing  the  several  religious  denominations 
of  Christians  in  the  District,  will  lose  no  time  in  waiting  upon  our  Chief  Magis- 
trate, Andrew  Johnson,  and  tendering  to  him  our  warmest  sympathies,  our 
affectionate  confidence,  and  our  most  earnest  support,  with  the  pledge  of  our 
constant  prayers  that  his  administration  may  be  happy  and  prosperous,  and 
that  it  may  speedily  secure  the  highest  aspirations  of  our  afflicted  and  bleeding 
country  by  the  restoration  of  unity,  peace,  and  universal  freedom. 

Resolved,  That  in  view  of  the  weighty  responsibility  thus  so  suddenly  de- 
volved upon  him,  we  commend  to  the  devout  prayers  of  all  Christian  people  the 
President  of  the  United  States  and  all  others  in  authority,  that  God  would  so 
replenish  them  with  the  grace  of  His  Holy  Spirit,  that  they  may  always  incline 
to  His  will  and  walk  in  His  ways ;  that  He  would  endue  them  plenteously  with 
heavenly  gifts,  grant  them  in  health  and  prosperity  long  to  live,  and  finally, 
after  this  life,  to  attain  everlasting  joy  and  felicity,  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. 

C.  H.  HALL,  Chairman. 

A.  D.  GILLETTE,  Secretary. 

J.  GEO.  BUTLER. 

W.  B.  EDWARDS, 

J.  N.  COOMBS, 

W.  H.  CHANNING, 

DAN'L  BOWERS, 

WM.  F.  BUTLER, 

JABEZ  FOX, 

SEPTIMUS  TUSTIN, 

Committee. 
C.B.Mackee,  Presbyter;  Alfred Holmead, Grace  Church;  C.  Lepley,  Lutheran; 
W.  M.  D.  Ryan,  Foundry  M.  E.  Church ;  T.  B.  McFalls,  Assembly's  Presbyte- 
rian Church ;  T.  R.  Howlett,  Calvary  Baptist  Church ;  J.  H.  C.  Bonte,  Christ 
Church,  (Episcopal,)  Georgetown;  J.  H.  M.  Lemon,  Union  Chapel;  W.  Y. 
Brown,  Presbyterian,  U.  S.  A.;  J.  T.  Ward,  Ninth  Street  M.  P.  Church:  R.  H. 
Ball,  Ninth  Street  M.  P.  Church;  Geo.  V.  Leech,  Waugh  M.  E.  Church;  Job 
W.  Lambeth,  Fletcher  M.  E.  Church;  W.  B.  Evans,  Presbyterian,  (N.  S.);  H. 
N.  Sipes,  East  Washington  M.  E.  Church ;  Ulysses  Ward,  Ninth  Street  M.  P. 
Church ;  Jas.  Mitchell,  ]\Iinister  of  the  M.  E.  Church  ;  W.  S.  Fort,  Minister  of  the 
M.  E.  Church ;  II.  J.  Gonsalvus,  Chaplain,  U.  S.  A. ;  Sam'l  M.  Shute,  Professor, 
Columbian  College ;  Mayberry  Goiieen,  Minister  of  McKendree  Chapel ;  W.  B. 
Matchett,  Baptist;  Oliver  Cox,  Potomac  Mission;  Jacob  Henn,  German  Evan- 
gelical ]\Iissionary;  Wm.  H.  Campbell,  Presbyterian;  0.  P.  Pitcher,  Mission- 
ary, Y.  M.  C.  Association ;  J.  N.  Davis,  Pastor  Gorsuch  M.  E.  Church ;  J.  East- 
burn  Brown,  Episcopal,   Georgetown;   P.  Hall  Sweet,  M.  P.  Church;    John 


68 

Chester,  Presbyterian;  K.  R.  Gurley,  Secretary  of  the  Colonization  Society; 
Ed.  C.  Merrick,  Local  Elder  M.  E.  Church;  J.  M.  Muse,  City  Missionary;  B. 
B.  Emory,  M.  E.  Church;  J.  L.  Hayghe,  M.  E.  Church;  M.  A.  Turner,  M.  E. 
Church;  B.  H.  Nadal,  M.  E.  Church;  Jos.  B.  Stitt,  M.  E.  Church;  B.  Newton 
Brown,  M.  E.  Church;  W.  B.  Edwards,  M.  E.  Church  ;  W.  W.  Winchester,  Con- 
gregationalist ;  W.  T.  Johnson,  Second  Baptist  Church ;  Wm.  F.  Butler,  John 
Wesley  Church  ;  Jno.  Lanahan,  Presiding  Elder,  Virginia  District;  James  Peck, 
Pastor  Asbury  M.  E.  Church;  E.  11.  Gray,  Pastor  of  E  Street  Baptist  Church ; 
John  A.  Williams,  Galbraith  Chapel ;  William  Henry  Channing,  Unitarian ; 
J.  B.  Jones,  Assistant  Pastor,  Congress  Street  Methodist  Protestant  Church, 
Georgetown,  D.  C;  C.  W.  Walker,  Chaplain  First  Regiment  N.  H.  II.  A. ;  J. 
N.  Coombs,  Pastor  of  Western  Presbyterian  Church  ;  Dan'l  Bowers,  Pastor  of 
Congress  Street  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  Georgetown,  D.  C. ;  John  Dickin- 
son, M.  E.  Church  ;  C.  W.  Pritchett,  Methodist  Church;  Sam'l  D.  Finckel,  G. 
E.  Church;  J.  R.  Davenport,  ofiiciating  at  St.  John's  Church;  E.  M.  Buerger, 
German  Evangelical  Lutheran  Trinity  Church  ;  G.  W.  Samson,  President  Co- 
lumbian College ;  C.  C.  Meador,  Pastor  of  Island  Baptist  Church ;  Daniel  H. 
Parrish,  Pastor  First  Cong.  Meth.  Church ;  T.  N.  Haskell,  Presbyterian  Church ; 
R,  J.  Keeling,  Trinity  Parish;  W.  A.  Harris,  Episcopal;  C.  R.  V.  Romondt, 
Reformed  Dutch  Church ;  L.  S.  Russell,  St.  John's,  Georgetown,  D.  C. ;  B.  F. 
Morris,  Congregationalist. 

On  motion  of  Rev.  Mr.  Evans,  it  was 

Resolved,  That  a  Committee  of  six  be  appointed  to  wait  upon  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  inform  him  of  the  desire  of  this  meeting  to  pay  him 
a  visit,  and  to  ascertain  at  what  hour  it  will  be  convenient  for  him  to  re- 
ceive us. 

The  Committee  of  six  was  appointed  by  the  Chairman,  as 
follows  :  Rev.  W.  B.  Evans,  (chairman,)  Rev.  Drs.  Tustin  and 
Channing,  and  Rev.  Messrs.  Hewlett,  Brown,  (Meth.,)  and 
Holmead. 

Resolved,  That  the  Preamble  and  Resolutions  of  the  Committee,  as  amended, 
be  adopted  and  signed  by  those  ministers  who  are  present. 

Resolved,  That  the  ministers  of  the  District  who  are  absent  from  this  meet- 
ing are  invited  to  unite  with  us  in  signing  these  Resolutions. 

On  motion  of  Rev.  J.  Lanahan, 

Resolved,  That  the  Chairman  and  Secretary  of  this  meeting  be  and  they  are 
hereby  appointed  a  Committee  to  communicate  to  the  family  of  the  late  Presi- 
dent, and  also  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  the  proceedings  of  this  meeting. 

The  Committee  of  six  returned,  and  reported  by  their  chair- 
man. Rev.  Mr.  Evans,  that  they  had  been  favored  with  an  inter- 


69 

Tiew  with  the  President,  and  that  it  was  his  desire  to  see  the 
members  of  this  body  at  once,  at  his  room  in  the  Treasury 
Building ;  whereupon,  on  motion,  it  was  resolved  to  adjourn, 
after  appropriate  devotions,  to  visit  the  President  of  the  United 
States. 

After  the  members  of  the  Convention  had  been  severally 
introduced  to  the  President,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley,  their  Chair- 
man, addressed  him  as  follows  : 

Me.  Pkesident  :  The  persons  now  standing  around  you  are  Ministers  of  the 
Gospel  of  different  religious  denominations,  residing  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
We  have  been  in  session  in  one  of  our  Churches  for  several  hours  to-day,  con- 
sidering what  utterance  we  ought  to  make,  and  what  testimony  we  ought  to 
bear,  touching  the  sore  and  sudden  bereavement  which  has  come  upon  the 
Nation.  Our  meeting  was  large,  solemn,  and  tearful ;  our  proceedings  were 
delightfully  harmonious ;  and  we  unanimously  and  cordially  adopted  certain 
resolutions  pertaining  to  our  late  lamented  Chief  Magistrate,  and  to  you  his 
successor  in  office,  which  the  Secretary  of  our  meeting  will  now  read  in  your 
hearing. 

Here  the  foregoing  Resolutions  were  read  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Hall,  and  when  the  reading  was  finished.  Dr.  Gurley  resumed 
his  address,  and  said  : 

After  the  reading  of  these  resolutions,  I  hardly  need  to  add  anything  to  what 
I  have  already  said.  These  resolutions,  Mr.  President,  convey  to  you  our  feel- 
ings, the  feelings  of  our  very  heart.  As  we  carried  your  predecessor  daily  in 
the  arms  of  our  faith  to  God,  so  will  we  carry  you  to  Him  also,  and  pray  for 
you  without  ceasing,  that  the  same  hand  which  guided  him  so  wisely  and  so 
well,  may  guide  you  in  like  manner.  As  you  enter  upon  the  grave  and  respon- 
sible duties  of  the  position  you  have  so  unexpectedly  been  called  to  fill,  and  as 
you  continue  in  those  duties,  we  shall  remember  you  in  our  closets;  we  shall 
remember  you  before  our  family  altars;  we  shall  remember  you  in  our  social 
meetings  for  prayer  and  praise;  we  shall  remember  you  in  our  sanctuaries,  and 
in  the  presence  of  our  congregations,  upon  each  returning  Sabbath,  and  the 
burden  of  our  united  petitions  on  your  behalf  will  be,  that  the  God  of  our 
fathers,  and  our  God,  will  give  you  that  wisdom  "which  ia  first  pure,  then 
peaceable,  gentle,  easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits,  without 
partiality,  and  without  hypocrisy."  May  that  wisdom  be  your  guide  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  your  term  of  office,  and,  under  its  guidance,  may  your 
administration  redound  to  the  advancement  of  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice, 
of  law  and  order,  of  liberty  and  good  government,  of  pure  and  undefiled  re- 
ligion, and  may  the  day  soon  come,  and  you  live  to  see  it,  when  the  nation  shall 
emerge  from  its  trials  with  augmented  purity  and  vigor,  and  be  re-established 


70 

npon  a  foundation  that  never  can  be  moved — the  foundation  of  liberty  and 
rightft-ausness,  of  unity  and  peace. 

After  a  pause,  and  in  perfect  silence  of  the  interested  group 
of  nearly  sixty  ministers  of  all  denominations,  the  President, 
evidently  oppressed  by  his  emotions,  began  somewhat  slowly, 
in  a  low  voice,  which  grew  earnest  as  he  proceeded,  and  reached 
every  heart,  nearly  as  follows  : 

Gentlemen  :  I  feel  overwhelmed  by  this  occasion,  and  utterly  incompetent 
to  the  task  before  me,  of  making  a  suitable  reply  to  you  :  and  it  may  be  that 
silence  and  the  deep  feelings  of  my  own  heart  are  the  best  answer  I  can  give 
you.  I  thank  you  for  this  visit  and  this  expression  of  your  sentiments.  I  feel 
deeply  solemn  in  view  of  this  whole  scene,  and  in  listening  to  the  eloquent 
words  which  have  been  spoken  and  read  to  me.  I  feel  overwhelmed  by  thoughts 
of  the  position  in  which  I  am  so  suddenly  placed  and  the  duties  which  have  de- 
volved upon  me.  But  amid  all  this  natural  feeling,  the  assurance  which  you  have 
been  pleased  to  give  me,  that  I  shall  have  the  countenance,  the  assistance,  and  the 
prayers  of  such  a  body  as  this,  is  most  gratifying  to  my  heart.  It  is  possible,  it  is 
natural  that  you  should  desire  to  know  something  of  the  future  administration 
of  affairs,  and  I  can  only  say  to  you,  as  I  have  said  to  others,  that  my  course 
in  the  past  must  be  my  guaranty  of  what  I  hope  to  do  in  the  future.  I  call 
upon  you  to  take  notice  that  I  have  entered  upon  my  office  with  no  manifesto — 
no  proclamation,  with  no  propositions  of  changes  or  new  policy  of  my  own.  In 
entering  on  the  performance  of  duties  so  important  and  responsible  as  those  be- 
fore me,  I  can  only  say  to  you,  that  the  course  of  events  must  decide,  as  they 
arise,  what  shall  be  the  measures  best  adapted  to  promote  the  good  of  the 
country.  ]\Iy  whole  life  has  been  based  on  the  profound  belief,  in  which  I  have 
never  wavered,  that  there  is  a  great  principle  of  right,  which  lies  at  the  basis 
of  all  things.  I  have  always  trusted  to  that  principle  as  the  certain  support  of 
all  who  abide  by  it — the  great  principle  of  right,  and  justice,  and  truth.  I  shall 
trust  to  it,  and  guide  the  administration  of  public  affairs  in  conformity  to  it. 
I  should  feel  anxious  for  the  future,  but  that  I  have  an  abiding  confidence  in 
the  strength  of  that  principle,  and  in  Him  who  founded  it.  I  thank  you  for 
the  assurance  which  you  have  been  pleased  to  offer  me.  I  have  heard  the  fer- 
vent words  which  you  have  uttered  and  read  to  me  of  your  love  for  the  great 
man  who  is  gone,  and  I  feel  them  all ;  your  opinions  of  his  mercy  and  clemency, 
and  I  respond  to  them  heartily.  The  true  point  which  is  to  be  made  by  us  is, 
where  these  must  stop,  when  they  shall  be  conformed  to  the  rules  of  right  and 
j  ustice.  It  is  the  great  question  of  the  hour,  and  I  shall  try  to  administer  the 
government  in  such  a  manner  that  it  shall  deal  out  to  all,  with  impartial  hand, 
that  which  the  merits  of  each  demand.  In  my  opinion  the  time  has  come 
when  you  and  I  must  understand  and  must  teach  that  treason  is  a  crime,  and 
not  a  mere  difference  of  political  opinions.  I  have  listened  with  emotion  to 
the  language  in  which  you  have  expressed  so  clearly  your  abhorrence  of  the 
crime  which  has  deprived  the  nation  of  its  Chief  Magistrate  and  filled  the  land 


71 

■with  mourning.  You  have  characterized  it  justly,  but  it  may  not  be  too  much 
to  say  it  is  diabolical — for  in  fact  this  deed  was  devilish.  We  mourn  together 
to-day  over  the  calamity  that  has  fallen  upon  the  country.  I  feel  that  our  be- 
loved country  will  pass  through  the  troubles  of  the  present.  I  say  again  that 
I  put  my  trust  in  the  great  principle  which  underlies  all  our  institutions,  and 
believe  that  we  shall  come  out  of  this  struggle  to  a  better  and  higher  life.  The 
government  has  not  accomplished  its  mission — but  under  the  benignant  smiles 
of  the  Almighty  it  will  yet  fulfil  it.  The  country  will  triumph  in  the  end,  and 
these  great  principles  will  be  iirmly  established. 

Again  I  cordially  thank  you  for  your  presence  on  this  occasion,  and  for  the 
expression  of  your  sympathies  in  this  hour  of  the  nation's  peril.  I  trust  that 
in  confidence  in  the  great  principles  of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  with  your 
countenance  and  prayers,  I  shall  be  enabled  to  succeed  in  restoring  peace  and 
concord  to  this  now  distracted  and  unhappy  country. 

The  individuals  present  responded  to  certain  portions  of  his 
remarks  with  a  fervent  amen,  and  at  their  conclusion  again 
approached,  and  with  each  a  word  of  encouragement  and  bless- 
ing took  leave  of  the  President,  who  seemed  greatly  cheered 
by  the  promised  aid  of  the  representatives  of  the  religious 
bodies  of  the  community,  in  the  arduous  labors  to  which  he  had 
been  so  suddenly  and  sadly  called. 

P.  D.  GURLEY,  Chairman. 

Chas.  II.  Hall,  Secretary, 

A  delegation  of  colored  pastors,  members  of  the  National 
Theological  Institute  for  colored  ministers,  waited  upon  Presi- 
dent Johnson,  a  few  days  after  President  Lincoln's  death,  and 
were  introduced  by  Rev.  B.  Turuy,  D.  D.,  one  of  their  number, 
who  said  : 

In  behalf  of  these  brethren,  and  of  others  who  are  not  present,  allow  me,  sir, 
to  present  you  with  a  copy  of  the  following  resolutions  adopted  by  them, 
expressive  of  their  grief  at  the  death  of  the  late  President,  and  their  gratitude  at 
the  emancipation  wrought  in  connection  with  his  administration ;  containing 
also  a  reference  to  his  expression  of  devout  regard  for  the  sacred  scriptures  as 
the  book  of  God  and  the  revelation  of  a  Saviour,  and  a  declaration  of  their  spirit 
of  loyalty  and  fidelity  and  devotion  to  the  government  with  reference  to  the 
future : 

Resolved,  That  the  sudden  and  mysterious  death  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin 
of  the  great  and  good  man,  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  whom  we  had  learned  to  revere  and  love  as  a  benefactor,  a  friend,  and  a 
father,  has  pierced  our  hearts  with  the  most  poignant  grief. 

Resolved,  That  we  express  our  liveliest  gratitude  that  God  has  permitted  ua 
in  His  Providence  to  witness  the  events  relating  to  the  emancipation  and  ele-va- 


72 

tion  of  tlie  colored  people  of  this  country,  which  in  our  own  grateful  remem- 
brance, as  well  as  in  the  history  of  the  nation  and  of  the  world,  will  ever  be 
inseparable  from  the  name  and  acts  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Resolved,  That  of  the  memorable  sayings  of  our  lamented  President,  none  is 
remembered  by  us  with  greater  interest  than  the  words  addressed  by  him  a  few 
months  before  his  death  to  a  delegation  of  colored  men,  who  had  presented  him 
with  a  Bible,  in  which  he  affectionately  commended  the  sacred  volume  to  our 
regard  as  the  book  of  God,  and  the  revelation  to  man  of  a  "  Saviour,"  and  of 
"  all  things  most  desirable  for  man's  welfare,  here  and  hereafter;"  and  we  deem 
it  suitable  that  we  improve  the  mysterious  event  by  which  he  has  been  taken 
from  us,  by  earnestly  entreating  the  colored  people  of  our  land  and  all  others 
to  take  this  holy  book  as  their  guide,  to  seek  to  conform  their  hearts  and  lives 
to  its  heavenly  teachings,  and  to  receive,  in  humble  faith  and  submission  and 
obedience,  the  Saviour  whom  it  reveals,  recognizing  that  in  this  alone  they  can 
secure  the  highest  of  all  possible  blessings. 

Resolved,  That  we  extend  to  the  bereaved  family  of  him  whom  we  mourn  our 
heartfelt  condolence,  praying  that  the  widow's  God  and  the  Father  of  the 
fatherless  will  be  to  them  the  source  of  all  consolation  and  of  all  blessing. 

Resolved,  That,  as  it  is  with  devout  thankfulness  that  we  record  the  unwaver- 
ing fidelity  of  the  colored  people  to  the  national  government  during  the  des- 
perate struggle  which  has  been  made  for  its  overthrow,  we  express  the  fervent 
hope  that,  actuated  by  the  same  spirit,  they  may  ever  continue  to  be  its  stead- 
fast and  zealous  friends  and  supporters. 

Resolved,  That  we  will  give  to  President  Johnson  the  support  of  our  prayers, 
and  within  our  several  spheres  of  action  our  earnest  efforts  in  the  work  of 
establishing  throughout  the  land  the  principles  of  liberty  and  peace,  justice 
and  equality  of  right,  and  of  promoting  the  various  purposes  of  a  wise  and 
good  and  righteous  government. 

President  Johnson  thanked  them  for  their  manifestations  of 
respect  and  regard,  and  said,  in  conclusion  of  his  reply  to  them, 
"  I  hope  God  will  continue  to  conduct  us  till  the  great  end  shall 
be  accomplished,  and  the  work  reach  its  great  consummation. 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  REMAINS  IN  STATE. 


An  unparalleled  throng  manifested  their  homage  and  affection 
for  the  late  President,  whose  remains  lay  in  state  in  the  East 
Room  of  the  Presidential  Mansion.  Although  some  eight 
hours  were  allowed  for  visitors  to  pass  and  gaze  upon  the  fa- 
miliar  features  of  the  dead,  thousands  were  subjected  to  painful 
disappointment.  Death  had  fastened  into  his  frozen  face  all  the 
character  and  idiosyncrasy  of  life.  He  had  not  changed  one 
line  of  his  grave,  grotesque  countenance,  nor  smoothed  out  a 
feature.  The  hue  was  rather  bloodless  and  leaden  ;  but  he  was 
always  sallow.  The  dark  eyebrows  seemed  abruptly  arched. 
The  mouth  was  shut,  like  that  of  one  who  had  put  his  foot  down 
firm,  and  so  were  the  eyes,  which  looked  as  calm  as  slumber. 
The  collar  was  short  and  turned  over  the  stiff  elastic  cravat,  and 
whatever  energy  or  humor  or  tender  gravity  marked  the  living 
face  it  hardened  into  its  pulseless  outline.  No  corpse  in  the 
world  was  better  prepared  according  to  appearances.  The 
white  satin  around  it  reflected  sufficient  light  upon  the  face  to 
Bhow  that  death  was  really  there  ;  but  there  were  sweet  roses 
and  early  magnolias,  and  the  balmiest  of  lilies  strewn  around, 
as  if  the  flowers  had  begun  to  bloom  even  upon  his  coffin. 

The  body  lay  upon  a  catafalque  in  the  centre  of  the  room, 
which  presented  a  sepulchral  appearance.  The  irregularly  and 
gracefully  arched  canopy  of  this  structure,  in  its  greatest 
height,  was  eleven  feet,  and  was  supported  by  four  posts,  some 
seven  feet  in  height,  and  over  which  the  roof  or  canopy  projected 
at  each  end  about  one  foot.  Under  this  canopy,  and  upon  a  spa- 
cious dais  or  platform,  eleven  feet  long,  four  feet  wide,  and  three 

73 


74 

feet  high,  rested  the  coffin.     Extending  entirely  around  this  dais 
was  another  platform,  about  two  feet  wide  and  eight  inches  high, 
and  serving  as  a  step  upon  which  to  stand  in  viewing  the  corpse. 
The  distance  between  the  posts  supporting  the  canopy  was  six- 
teen feet  in  its  length  and  ten  feet  in  its  width.     The  coffin  laid 
with  the  head  to  the  north  and  the  feet  to  the  south,  and  was  six 
feet  six  inches  in  length,  and  one  foot  and  a  half  across  the 
shoulders.     It  was  of  mahogaHy,  and  lined  with  lead,  covered 
with  superb  black  broadcloth,   and  with  four  massive   silver 
handles  upon  each  side.    In  the  spaces  between  the  handles  were 
ornamental  figures,  formed  with  silver  cord,  resembling  the  leaf 
of  the  shamrock,  and  in  the  centre  of  each  a  large  silver  star,  and 
there  was  a  silver  star  upon  each  end  of  the  coffin.     There  was  a 
heavy  bullion  fringe  extending  entirely  around  the  edge  of  the 
upper  part  of  the  coffin,  and  pendant  bullion  tassels  upon  silver 
cords  fell  gracefully  from  the  fringe  before  the  apex  of  each 
figure   containing   the   star.     A   row  of  silver-headed   tacks, 
some  two  inches  from  the  edge,  extended  the  whole  length  of  the 
cover  on  each  side.     The  large  silver  plate  was  in  the  centre  of 
a  shield  formed  with  silver  tacks,  on  which  is  the  inscription  ' 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 

Sixteenth  President  of  the  United  States. 

Born  July  12,  1809. 

Died   April  15,  1865. 

This  was  encircled  by  a  shield  formed  of  silver  tacks.  The 
whole  was  really  beautiful,  and  finished  with  exceedingly  good 
taste  and  fine  workmanship.  The  face-lid  was  hung  with  fine 
silver  hinges  in  the  form  of  stars.  The  inside  of  the  lid  was 
raised  or  cushioned  with  white  satin,  and  the  centre  piece 
ornamented  with  black  and  white  silk  braid,  fastened  with  stars 
at  the  corners.  The  pillow  and  the  lower  surface  of  the  coffin 
were  covered  with  white  silk  ;  the  sides  and  upper  surface  with 
plaited  satin.  The  corpse  was  dressed  in  the  black  suit  in  which 
the  President  was  first  inaugurated.  The  turned-down  collar 
and  the  black  cravat  were  adjusted  precisely  as  they  were  wont 
to  be  seen  in  his  life-time.     The  face  and  features  looked  quite 


75 

natural,  and  much  credit  was  due  to  tlie  embalmer,  Dr.  Charles 
D.  Brown. 

The  canopy  of  the  catafalque  was  covered  on  the  upper  side 
with  black  alpaca,  and  on  the  inner  side  with  white  fluted  satiu. 
The  black  alpaca  drapery  of  the  canopy  was  festooned  with  six- 
teen rosettes.  The  heavy  alpaca  curtains  of  the  catafalque,  fall- 
ing from  the  canopy  to  the  floor,  were  looped  back  to  the  corner 
supports  with  bands  of  crape.  The  dais  upon  which  the  coffin 
rested  was  covered  with  rich  black  cloth.  The  lower  surround- 
ing step,  or  platform,  was  covered  with  black  muslin.  A  magni- 
ficent wreath  of  intertwined  laurel  and  cedar,  decorated  with 
camelias,  entirely  encircled  the  coffin,  resting  upon  the  dais.  A 
smaller  wreath,  composed  of  cedar  and  laurel,  with  interwoven 
flowers,  laid  at  the  head  of  the  coffin.  Upon  the  foot  of  the 
coffin  was  deposited  a  large,  gracefully-formed  anchor,,  exqui- 
sitely composed  of  sweet  and  beautiful  flowers,  wrought  with 
evergreens. 

The  East  Room  was  draped  with  a  taste  that  left  nothing  to 
be  desired.  The  chandeliers  at  each  end  of  the  room  were  en- 
tirely covered  with  black  alpaca,  and  all  the  pilasters  were 
covered  from  ceiling  to  floor  with  the  same  material.  The  eight 
grand  mirrors  were  entirely  covered,  the  frames  with  alpaca  and 
the  glass  with  white  barege.  The  usual  superb  drapery  and 
decorations  of  the  windows  were  entirely  covered,  from  cornice 
to  the  carpet,  with  black  barege.  The  drapery  of  the  spacious 
doors,  opening  into  the  grand  entrance  hall,  closed  for  the  oc- 
casion, was  similar  to  that  of  the  windows.  The  mantel-pieces 
supporting  the  mirrors  were  heavily  draped  with  alpaca  depend- 
ing to  the  floor. 

The  immense  concourse  that  thronged  to  this  mournful  and 
affecting  scene  entered  the  eastern  gate,  passed  under  the 
portico  in  the  grand  hall,  thence  through  the  Green  Room  into 
the  East  Room,  approaching  the  foot  of  the  coffin,  and  there, 
dividing  into  two  columns,  stepped  upon  the  lower  platform, 
passed  along  on  either  side,  caught  a  passing  view  of  the  feat- 
ures of  him  they  had  so  loved  and  revered,  and  then  passed  out 
through  the  northern  door  of  the  East  Room,  and  from  the 
entry  through  the  window  upon  a  temporary  staircase  and  stag- 
ing, and  into  the  avenue  through  the  western  gateway.     The 


76 

entire  pavement  was  densely  packed  with  a  thronging  mass 
during  the  entire  day,  the  column  extending  nearly  the  whole 
time  from  the  Presidential  Mansion  to  tiie  southern  front  of  the 
Treasury  building,  a  distance  of  more  tlian  half  a  mile.  This 
column  was  composed  of  persons  of  all  ages  and  every  rank  of 
life  ;  and  the  scene  in  the  East  Room,  as  these  moving  men, 
women,  and  children  sobbed  and  wept  aloud  in  their  hasty  pas- 
sage through  the  room,  was  affecting  beyond  the  power  of  words 
to  portray.  The  war-worn  soldiers  and  officers  were  especially 
mournful  in  their  bearing. 

There  were  so  many  thousands  unable  to  see  the  corpse 
that  it  was  determined  to  place  the  remains  in  state  in  the 
Rotunda  of  the  Capitol  for  a  few  days  prior  to  their  con- 
veyance to  Springfield,  Illinois,  and  a  catafalque  similar  to  that 
in  the  East  Room  was  constructed  for  that  purpose. 

The  following  officers  representing  the  army  and  navy  were 
charged  with  the  superintendence  of  the  remains  while  lying  in 
state  :  On  the  part  of  the  army  :  Gen.  Hitchcock,  Gen.  Easton, 
Capt.  Penrose,  Capt.  Van  Lear,  and  Lieut.  Col.  W.  Sinclair. 
On  the  part  of  the  navy  :  Commander  E.  Stone,  of  the  monitor 
Montauk  ;  Lieut.  McNair,  Lieut.  A.  B.  Young,  and  Lieut.  N. 
H.  Farquhar. 


FUNERAL  SERVICES  AT  THE  PRESIDENT'S 

HOUSE. 


Sad  and  solemn  was  the  scene  which  the  East  Room  presented, 
and  yet  suggestive  of  hope  and  confidence.  A  dead  Chief 
Magistrate,  who  had  fallen  in  the  culmination  of  his  wishes  and 
exertions  to  restore  to  peace  and  joy  a  bleeding  country  ;  a 
living  successor,  who  succeeded  to  high  place  for  the  administra- 
tion of  Government  and  the  enforcement  of  the  obligations  of 
law,  surrounded  by  venerable  Senators,  an  illustrious  Council, 
and  the  Executive  Head  of  each  State  of  which  the  loyal 
Union  is  composed.  Treason  may  destroy  a  President,  but 
constitutional  Government  and  Liberty  still  live. 

All  that  remained  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  16th  President  of 
these  United  States,  lay  on  the  grand  and  gloomy  catafalque, 
which  was  relieved,  however,  by  choice  flowers  with  which  a 
kind  Providence  blesses  the  world.  Around,  the  apartment 
was  made  sepulchral  by  the  habiliments  of  woe.  The  specta- 
tors of  the  sorrowful  scene  were  not  merely  the  representatives 
of  our  people  in  Congress  and  of  the  States  ;  the  Executive 
successor  and  the  Cabinet  Ministers  ;  the  Chief  Justice  of  the 
United  States  and  his  associates  on  the  bench  of  that  venerated 
tribunal ;  the  chieftains  who  protect  our  homes  by  service  on 
the  field  and  ocean  ;  the  clergy,  a  host  of  pious  men,  who  ad- 
minister at  the  altar  for  our  spiritual  well-being  on  earth,  and 
to  guard  us  to  the  realms  of  bliss  beyond  sublunary  things  ; 
multitudes  in  various  positions  in  the  civil  affairs  of  State,  and 
distinguished  citizens  from  private  life,  but  an  imposing  array 

11 


78 

of  ambassadors,  with  their  less  elevated  a^/acAe's,  with  gorgeous 
decorations,  whose  imperial  masters  had  sent  them  to  cultivate 
peaceful  relations  with  this  Western  Republic.  The  scene, 
melancholy,  yet  grand  and  imposing,  touched  the  tenderest  sen- 
sibilities, as  the  eye  glanced  over  the  circle  of  afSicted  relations 
and  dear  friends  whose  sorrows  created  and  met  with  so  deep 
a  sympathy.  A  son,  attaining  a  noble  manhood,  affectionately 
grieved  a  loving  father  lost ;  Secretaries,  whose  relations  had 
been  intimate,  a  part  of  his  household,  mourned  the  deprivation 
of  a  friend  ;  and  all,  of  whatever  degree,  sorrowed  for  a  Chief 
who  had  entwined  himself  with  the  throbbing  heart  of  a  great 
Republic. 

The  East  Room,  the  same  in  which  Harrison  and  Taylor  lay 
in  state,  was  far  more  artistically  prepared  for  the  coming 
ceremonies.  The  plates  of  its  four  large  mirrors  were  covered 
with  white  crape,  while  their  frames  were  hidden  by  the  falling 
folds  of  a  black  drapery,  similar  to  that  which  covered  the 
blood-red  damascene  and  white  lace  curtains  of  the  windows. 
The  Venetian  shutters  being  partly  closed,  the  rich  red  of  the 
walls  stained  the  partially  admitted  light,  already  toned  down 
by  the  heavy  masses  of  black,  and  through  the  dark  shadows 
of  the  catafalque  the  light  seemed  to  struggle  in  dim  religious 
rays,  that  stole  rather  than  leaped  back  from  the  silver  orna- 
ments of  the  coffin  and  the  shrouded  surfaces  of  the  polished 
mirrors. 

What  added  greatly  to  the  awing  effect  of  the  room,  was  a 
series  of  seats  or  steps  which  were  covered  with  black,  and 
partitioned  off,  as  it  were,  with  thin  white  lines,  descending  from 
the  northern,  eastern,  and  southern  sides  of  the  room,  to  about 
five  feet  of  the  base  of  the  black  temple  of  death  placed  in  the 
centre  of  the  room.  Along  the  western  side  of  these  were 
placed  fifteen  chairs,  covered  with  black,  and  ranged  along  the 
wall  for  the  use  of  the  members  of  the  Press. 

The  series  of  seats  or  steps  partitioned  off  by  lines  of  white 
were  reserved  for  the  various  groups  expected,  by  a  card  being 
laid  on  each,  with  writing,  stating  the  use  for  which  it  was  in- 
tended. 

The  northwestern  corner  was  reserved  for  the  pall  bearers  ; 


79 

next,  to  the  eastward,  was  the  partition  ticketed  for  the  New 
York  delegation  ;  next  came  that  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  then 
that  of  the  Judiciary,  and  behind  these,  officers  of  the  Sanitary 
and  Christian  Commissions  ;  next  were  stationed  Governors 
of  various  States  and  Territories,  Heads  of  Bureaus,  Assistant 
Secretaries,  then  the  Diplomatic  Corps,  beside  which  were  the 
President  and  Cabinet,  and  alongside  of  these  stood  the  Sena- 
tors, beyond  which  were  members  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, clergymen  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
city  authorities. 

The  first  to  enter  the  room  were  the  ministers  of  religion, 
among  which  were  clergymen  of  all  denominations,  and  from 
every  State  in  the  Union. 

The  New  York  delegation  next  entered.  It  was  composed 
of  Simeon  Draper,  General  Strong,  Moses  Taylor,  Jas.  Brown, 
John  Jacob  Astor,  Samuel  Sloane,  William  E.  Dodge,  Moses 
H.  Grinnell,  Jonathan  Sturges,  Charles  P.  Daley,  Edwards 
Pierpont,  William  M.  Evarts,  Denning  Duer,  Charles  H.  Rus- 
sell, and  S.  Blatchford. 

The  following  gentlemen  appeared  as  a  special  delegation 
from  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce  :  Carl  H.  Waller, 
William  Barton,  F.  S.  Winston,  William  Borden,  James  M. 
Green,  Alderman  Norton,  Councillor  Cost,  Councillor  Brady, 
Hon.  A.  M.  Bradford,  William  Vermilye,  Hiram  Walbridge, 
William  Orton,  Alderman  Bryce,  Councillor  Lent,  Councillor 
Peterson,  Thomas  Levey,  and  General  Strong. 

Among  the  Governors  of  States  were,  in  the  allotted  par- 
tition, Fenton,  New  York  ;  Oglesby,  Illinois  ;  Stone,  Iowa ; 
Parker,  New  Jersey;  Andrew,  Massachusetts;  Brough,  Ohio  ; 
Buckingham,  Connecticut ;  Pierpoiut,  Virginia. 

There  were  many  Senators  present.  Among  them  were 
Senators  Foster,  Ramsey,  Harris,  Chandler,  Cowan,  Sumner, 
McDougal,  Saulsbury,  Wade,  Jolmson,  Creswell,  Williams, 
Norton,  Stewart,  Nye,  Conness,  and  Collamer. 

Among  the  members  of  the  lower  House  were  Speaker  Colfax 
and  many  others. 

Beside  President  Johnson  stood  the  Hon.  Preston  King  and 
ex- Vice  President  Hamlin. 


80 

The  members  and  executive  ofScers  of  tlic  United  States 
Sanitary  Commission  attended  the  ceremonies  at  the  Executive 
Mansion  in  a  body. 

All  these  various  groups  were  nearly  placed  in  their  appointed 
sections  when  the  Cabinet  and  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  United 
States  entered  with  the  new  President.  As  the  various  Secre- 
taries filed  in,  all  eyes  were  turned  upon  them,  and  when  the 
last  had  entered,  a  slight  but  perceptible  stir  ran  through  the 
audience,  showing  that  the  very  absence  of  him  who  had  been 
selected  as  the  fellow  victim  of  the  dead  man  in  the  room 
brought  him  the  more  vividly  back  to  the  memory  of  those 
present ;  and  as  the  courtly  Corps  Diplomatique  entered  and 
looked  at  the  assembly,  one  could  see  that  they  felt  there  was 
nothing  wanting  but  himself  alone. 

Lieutenant  General  Grant  sat  about  five  feet  from  the  base 
of  the  catafalque  ;  near  him  were  Admirals  Farragut  and  Golds- 
borough,  and  at  the  other  end  of  the  room  was  Major  General 
Hitchcock. 

Mrs.  Lincoln  did  not  enter  the  East  Room,  being  too  ill  from 
prostration  and  an  incipient  fever,  brought  on  by  the  awful 
excitement  and  sorrow  to  which  she  had  been  subjected. 

The  two  sons  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  Master  Thaddeus  and  Captam 
Robert  Lincoln,  both  attended  ;  but  it  was  easy  to  see  that  it 
required  all  the  resolution  the  latter  could  summon  to  master 
the  grief  that  agitated  him. 

All  the  representatives  of  foreign  governments,  ambassadors, 
secretaries,  and  attaches,  were  present,  in  full  court  costume, 
and  their  high-collared  and  heavy-gilt  coats,  their  vests  deco- 
rated with  various  orders,  rendered  them  a  glittering  group 
in  an  assemblage  dressed  in  sombre  black. 

There  were  in  all  about  six  hundred  persons  in  the  room. 
Of  these  six  hundred  hardly  fifty  but  were  known  as  leading 
men  of  the  country,  either  in  commerce,  laws,  ethics,  literature, 
statesmanship,  or  in  practical  generalship  on  sanguinary  fields. 
Diplomacy,  arts,  arms,  science,  all  of  to-day,  all  of  living  in- 
terest, a  part  of  the  breathing,  throbbing  age,  were  there  ;  and 
as  these  men  stood  up,  and  the  ambassadors  leaned  forth  to 


81 

scan  the  scene,  no  eye  that  dropped  upon  the  stilled  face  in  the 
coffin  but  was  moistened. 

Amid  such  a  scene  the  Rev.  Dr.  C.  H.  Hall,  Rector  of  the 
Church  of  the  Epiphany,  arose  and  read  the  following  portions 
of  the  Episcopal  service  for  the  burial  of  the  dead  : 

Lord,  let  me  know  my  end,  and  the  number  of  my  days  ;  that  I  may  be  cer- 
tified how  long  I  have  to  live. 

Behold,  thou  hast  made  my  days  as  it  were  a  span  long,  and  mine  age  is  even 
as  nothing  in  respect  of  thee ;  and  verily  every  man  living  is  altogether  vanity. 

For  man  walketh  in  a  vain  shadow,  and  disquieteth  himself  in  vain ;  he 
heapeth  up  riches,  and  cannot  tell  who  shall  gather  them. 

And  now.  Lord,  what  is  my  hope  ?     Truly  my  hope  is  even  in  thee. 

Deliver  me  from  all  my  offences;  and  make  me  not  a  rebuke  unto  the  foolish. 

When  thou  with  rebuke  dost  chasten  man  for  sin,  thou  makest  his  beauty  to 
consume  away,  like  as  it  were  a  moth  fretting  a  garment ;  every  man  is  there- 
fore but  vanity. 

Hear  my  prayer,  0  Lord,  and  with  thine  ears  consider  my  calling  ;  hold  not 
thy  peace  at  my  tears ; 

For  I  am  a  stranger  with  thee,  and  a  sojourner,  as  all  my  fathers  were. 

0  spare  me  a  little,  that  I  may  recover  my  strength,  before  I  go  hence,  and 
be  no  more  seen. 

Lord,  thou  hast  been  our  refuge,  from  one  generation  to  another. 

Before  the  mountains  were  brought  forth,  or  ever  the  earth  and  the  world 
were  made,  thou  art  God  from  everlasting,  and  world  without  end. 

Thou  turnest  man  to  destruction  ;  again  thou  sayest,  Come  again,  ye  children 
of  men. 

For  a  thousand  years  in  thy  sight  are  but  as  yesterday,  seeing  that  it  is  past 
as  a  watch  in  the  night. 

As  soon  as  thou  scatterest  them  they  are  even  as  a  sleep,  and  fade  away  sud- 
denly like  the  grass. 

In  the  morning  it  is  green,  and  groweth  up ;  but  in  the  evening  it  is  cut 
down,  dried  up,  and  withered. 

For  we  consume  away  in  thy  displeasure;  and  are  afraid  at  thy  wrathful 
indignation. 

Thou  hast  set  our  misdeeds  before  thee,  and  our  secret  sins  in  the  light  of  thy 
countenance. 

For  when  thou  art  angry  all  our  days  are  gone;  we  bring  our  years  to  an 
end  as  it  were  a  tale  that  is  told. 

The  days  of  our  age  are  threescore  years  and  ten ;  and  though  men  be  so 
strong  that  they  come  to  fourscore  years,  yet  is  their  strength  then  but  labor 
and  sorrow  ;  so  soon  passeth  it  away  and  we  are  gone. 

So  teach  us  to  number  our  days  that  we  may  apply  our  hearts  unto  wisdom. 

Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost ; 

As  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  world  without  end. 
Amen. 

6 


82 

Then  followed  the  Lesson,  taken  out  of  the  fifteenth  chapter 
of  the  first  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians  : 

Now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  and  become  the  first  fruits  of  them  that 
slept.  For  since  by  man  came  death,  by  man  came  also  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead.  For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive.  But  every 
man  in  his  own  order:  Christ  the  first  fruits ;  afterward  they  that  are  Christ's, 
at  his  coming.  Then  cometh  the  end,  when  he  shall  have  delivered  the  king- 
dom to  God,  even  the  Father ;  when  he  shall  have  put  down  all  rule,  and  all 
authority,  and  power.  For  he  must  reign  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under 
his  feet.  The  last  enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed  is  death.  For  he  hath  put  all 
things  under  his  feet.  But  when  he  saith,  all  things  are  put  under  him,  it  is 
manifest  that  he  is  excepted  which  did  put  all  things  under  him.  And  when 
all  things  shall  be  subdued  unto  him,  then  shall  the  Son  also  himself  be  subject 
unto  Ilim  that  put  all  things  under  him,  that  God  may  be  all  in  all.  Else  what 
shall  they  do  which  are  baptized  for  the  dead,  if  the  dead  rise  not  at  all?  Why 
are  they  then  baptized  for  the  dead?  and  why  stand  we  in  jeopardy  every 
hour?  I  protest  by  your  rejoicing,  which  I  have  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  I 
die  daily.  If  after  the  manner  of  men  I  have  fought  with  beasts  at  Ephesus, 
what  advantageth  it  me,  if  the  dead  rise  not?  let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to- 
morrow we  die.  Be  not  deceived;  evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners. 
Awake  to  righteousness,  and  sin  not ;  for  some  have  not  the  knowledge  of  God. 
I  speak  this  to  your  shame.  But  some  man  will  say.  How  are  the  dead  raised 
up  ?  and  with  what  body  do  they  come  ?  Thou  fool !  that  which  thou  sowest 
is  not  quickened,  except  it  die.  And  that  which  thou  sowest,  thou  sowest 
not  that  body  that  shall  be,  but  bare  grain  ;  it  may  chance  of  wheat,  or  of  some 
other  grain.  But  God  giveth  it  a  body  as  it  hath  pleased  him,  and  to  every 
seed  his  own  body.  All  flesh  is  not  the  same  flesh ;  but  there  is  one  kind  of  flesh 
of  men,  another  flesh  of  beasts,  another  of  fishes,  and  another  of  birds.  There 
are  also  celestial  bodies,  and  bodies  terrestial ;  but  the  glory  of  the  celestial  is 
one,  and  the  glory  of  the  terrestial  is  another.  There  is  one  glory  of  the  sun, 
and  another  glory  of  the  moon,  and  another  glory  of  the  stars ;  for  one  star 
differeth  from  another  star  in  glory.  So  also  is  the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 
It  is  sown  in  corruption ;  it  is  raised  in  incorruption:  it  is  sown  in  dishonor;  it 
is  raised  in  glory ;  it  is  sown  in  weakness ;  it  is  raised  in  power :  it  is  sown  a 
natural  body  ;  it  is  raised  a  spiritual  body.  There  is  a  natural  body,  and  there 
is  a  spiritual  body.  And  so  it  is  written.  The  first  man  Adam  was  made  a 
living  soul;  the  last  Adam  was  made  a  quickening  spirit.  Plowbeit,  that  was 
not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is  natural ;  and  afterward  that  which 
is  spiritual.  The  first  man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy ;  the  second  man  is  the  Lord 
from  heaven.  As  is  the  earthy,  such  are  they  that  are  earthy:  and  as  is  the 
heavenly  such  are  they  also  that  are  heavenly.  And  as  we  have  borne  the 
image  of  the  earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly.  Now  this 
I  say,  brethren,  that  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God;  neither 
doth  corruption  inherit  incorruption.  Behold,  I  show  you  a  mystery:  we  shall 
not  all  sleep,  but  we  shall  all  be  changed,  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye,  at  the  last  trump :  for  the  trumpet  shall  sound,  and  the  dead  shall  be  raised 


83 

incorruptible,  and  we  shall  be  changed.  For  this  corruptible  must  put  on  in- 
corruption,  and  this  mortal  must  put  on  immortality.  So  when  this  corrupti- 
ble shall  have  put  on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  shall  have  put  on  immor- 
tality, then  shall  be  brought  to  pass  the  saying  that  is  written.  Death  is  swal- 
lowed up  in  victory.  0  death,  where  is  thy  sting?  0  grave,  where  is  thy 
victory?  The  sting  of  death  is  sin;  and  the  strength  of  sin  is  the  Law.  But 
thanks  be  to  God,  which  giveth  us  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Therefore,  my  beloved  brethren,  be  ye  steadfast,  unmoveable,  always  abounding 
in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  forasmuch  as  ye  know  that  your  labor  is  not  in  vain 
in  the  Lord. 

Man,  that  is  born  of  a  woman,  hath  but  a  short  time  to  live,  and  is  full  of 
misery.  He  cometh  up,  and  is  cut  down  like  a  flower ;  he  fleeth  as  it  were  a 
shadow,  and  never  continueth  in  one  stay. 

In  the  midst  of  life  we  are  in  death ;  of  whom  may  we  seek  for  succor,  but  of 
thee,  0  Lord,  who  for  our  sins  art  justly  displeased? 

Yet,  0  Lord  God,  most  holy,  0  Lord  most  mighty,  0  holy  and  most  merciful 
Saviour,  deliver  us  not  into  the  bitter  pains  of  eternal  death. 

Thou  knowest.  Lord,  the  secrets  of  our  hearts ;  shut  not  thy  merciful  ears  to 
our  prayer;  but  spare  us.  Lord,  most  holy,  0  God  most  mighty,  0  holy  and 
merciful  Saviour,  thou  most  worthy  Judge  eternal,  suffer  us  not,  at  our  last 
hour,  for  any  pains  of  death,  to  fall  from  thee. 

Bishop  Simpson,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  after 
the  reading  of  the  Scripture  lessons,  offered  the  following 
prayer  : 

Almighty  God,  our  Heavenly  Father,  as  with  smitten  and  suffering  hearts 
we  come  into  Thy  presence,  we  pray  in  the  name  of  our  blessed  Redeemer, 
that  thou  wouldst  pour  upon  us  Thy  Holy  Spirit,  that  all  our  thoughts  and  acts 
may  be  acceptable  in  thy  sight.  We  adore  Thee  for  all  Thy  glorious  perfec- 
tions. We  praise  Thee  for  the  revelation  which  Thou  has  given  us  in  Thy 
works  and  in  Thy  Word.  By  Thee  all  worlds  exist.  All  things  live  through 
Thee.  Thou  raisest  up  kingdoms  and  empires  and  castest  them  down.  By 
Thee  kings  reign  and  princes  decree  righteousness.  In  Thy  hand  are  the  issues 
of  life  and  death.  We  confess  before  Thee  the  magnitude  of  our  sins  and  trans- 
gressions, both  as  individuals  and  as  a  nation.  We  implore  Thy  mercy  for  the 
sake  of  our  Redeemer.  Forgive  us  all  our  iniquities  ;  if  it  please  Thee  remove 
Thy  chastening  hand  from  us,  and,  though  we  be  unworthy,  turn  away  from  us 
Thine  anger,  and  let  the  light  of  Thy  countenance  again  shine  upon  us. 

At  this  solemn  hour,  as  we  mourn  for  the  death  of  our  President,  who  was 
stricken  down  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  grant  us  also  the  grace  to  bow  in 
submission  to  Thy  holy  will.  May  we  recognize  Thy  hand  high  above  all  hu- 
man agencies,  and  Thy  power  as  controlling  all  events,  so  that  the  wrath  of 
man  shall  praise  Thee,  and  that  the  remainder  of  wrath  Thou  wilt  restrain. 
Humbled  under  the  sufferings  we  have  endured  and  the  great  afflictions  through 
which  we  have  passed,  may  we  not  be  called  upon  to  offer  other  sacrifices.  May 
\iie  lives  of  all  our  officers,  both  civil  and  military,  be  guarded  by  Thee  ;  and 


84 

let  no  violent  hand  fall  upon  any  of  them.  Mourning  as  we  do  for  the 
mighty  dead  by  whose  remains  we  stand,  we  would  yet  lift  our  hearts  unto 
Thee  in  grateful  acknowledgment  for  Thy  kindness  in  giving  us  so  great  and 
noble  a  commander.  Thou  art  glorified  in  good  men,  and  we  praise  Thee  that 
Thou  didst  give  him  unto  us  so  pure,  so  honest,  so  sincere,  and  so  transparent 
in  character.  We  praise  Thee  for  that  kind,  affectionate  heart  which  always 
swelled  with  feelings  of  enlarged  benevolence.  We  bless  Thee  for  what  Thou 
didst  enable  him  to  do  ;  that  Thou  didst  give  him  wisdom  to  select  for  his  ad- 
visers and  for  his  officers,  military  and  naval,  those  men  through  whom  our 
country  has  been  carried  through  an  unprecedented  conflict. 

We  bless  Thee  for  the  success  which  has  attended  all  their  efforts,  and  victories 
which  have  crowned  our  armies  ;  and  that  Thou  didst  spare  Thy  servant  until 
he  could  behold  the  dawning  of  that  glorious  morning  of  peace  and  prosperity 
which  is  about  to  shine  upon  our  land ;  that  he  was  enabled  to  go  up  as  Thy 
servant  of  old  upon  ]\Iount  Pisgah,  and  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  promised  land. 
Though  his  lips  are  silent  and  his  arm  is  powerless,  we  thank  Thee  that  Thou 
didst  strengthen  him  to  speak  words  that  cheer  the  hearts  of  the  suffering  and 
the  oppressed,  and  to  write  that  declaration  of  emancipation  which  has  given 
him  an  immortal  reward ;  that  though  the  hand  of  the  assassin  has  struck  him 
to  the  ground,  it  could  not  destroy  the  work  which  he  has  done,  nor  forge  again 
the  chains  which  he  has  broken.  And  while  we  mourn  that  he  has  passed 
away,  we  are  grateful  that  his  work  was  so  fully  accomplished,  and  that  the 
acts  which  he  has  performed  will  forever  remain. 

We  implore  Thy  blessing  upon  his  bereaved  family.  Thou  husband  of  the 
widow.  Bless  her  who,  broken-hearted  and  sorrowing,  feels  oppressed  with  un- 
utterable anguish.  Cheer  the  loneliness  of  the  pathway  which  lies  before  her, 
and  grant  to  her  such  consolations  of  Thy  spirit  and  such  hopes,  through  the 
resurrection,  that  she  shall  feel  that  "Earth  hath  no  sorrows  which  Heaven 
cannot  heal." 

Let  Thy  blessing  rest  upon  his  sons ;  pour  upon  them  the  spirit  of  wisdom  ;  be 
Thou  the  guide  of  their  youth  ;  prepare  them  for  usefulness  in  society,  for  happi- 
ness in  all  their  relations.  May  the  remembrance  of  their  father's  counsels,  and 
their  father's  noble  acts,  ever  stimulate  them  to  glorious  deeds,  and' at  last  may 
they  be  heirs  of  everlasting  life. 

Command  Thy  rich  blessings  to  descend  upon  the  successor  of  our  lamented 
President.  Grant  unto  him  wisdom,  energy,  and  firmness  for  the  responsible 
duties  to  which  he  has  been  called ;  and  may  he,  his  cabinet  officers,  and  gene- 
rals who  shall  lead  his  armies,  and  the  brave  soldiers  in  the  field,  be  so  guided 
by  Thy  counsels  that  they  shall  speedily  complete  the  great  work  which  he  had 
so  successfully  carried  forward. 

Let  Thy  blessing  rest  upon  our  country.  Grant  unto  us  all  a  fixed  and  strong 
determination  never  to  cease  our  efforts  until  our  glorious  Union  shall  be  fully 
re-established. 

Around  the  remains  of  our  beloved  President  may  we  covenant  together  by 
every  possible  means  to  give  ourselves  to  our  country's  service  until  every  ves- 
tige of  this  rebellion  shall  have  been  wiped  out,  and  until  slavery,  its  cause, 
shall  be  forever  eradicated. 


85 

Preserve  us,  we  pray  Thee,  from  all  complications  with  foreign  nations.  Give 
us  hearts  to  act  justly  towards  all  nations,  and  grant  unto  them  hearts  to  act 
iustly  towards  us,  that  universal  peace  and  happiness  may  fill  our  earth.  We 
rejoice,  then,  in  this  inflicting  dispensation  Thou  hast  given,  as  additional  evi- 
dence of  the  strength  of  our  nation.  We  hless  Thee  that  no  tumult  has  arisen, 
and  in  peace  and  harmony  our  Government  moves  onward  ;  and  that  Thou  hast 
shown  that  our  Republican  Government  is  the  strongest  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth.  In  this  solemn  presence  may  we  feel  that  we,  too,  are  immortal!  May 
the  sense  of  our  responsibility  to  God  rest  upon  us  ;  may  we  repent  of  every 
sin ;  and  may  we  consecrate  anew  unto  Thee  all  the  time  and  all  the  talents 
which  Thou  hast  given  us  ;  and  may  we  so  fulfil  our  allotted  duties  that  finally 
we  may  have  a  resting  place  with  the  good,  and  wise,  and  great  who  now  sur- 
round that  glorious  throne !  Hear  us  while  we  unite  in  praying  with  Thy 
Church  in  all  lands  and  in  all  ages,  even  as  Thou  hast  taught  us,  saying : 

Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  Thy  name.  Thy  kingdom 
come.  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  Give  us  this  day  our  daily 
bread.  And  forgive  us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our  debtors.  And  lead  us  not 
into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil :  for  thine  is  the  kingdom,  the  power, 
and  the  glory,  forever.    Amen. 

Rev.  Dr.  Gurley  delivered  the  following 

FUNERAL   ADDRESS : 

As  we  stand  here  to-day,  mourners  around  this  coffin  and  around  the  lifeless 
remains  of  our  beloved  Chief  Magistrate,  we  recognize  and  we  adore  the  sov- 
ereignty of  God.  His  throne  is  in  the  heavens,  and  His  kingdom  ruleth  over 
all.  He  hath  done,  and  he  hath  permitted  to  be  done,  whatsoever  He  pleased. 
"Clouds  and  darkness  are  round  about  Him;  righteousness  and  judgment  are 
the  habitations  of  His  throne."  His  way  is  in  the  sea,  and  His  path  in  the 
great  waters;  and  his  footsteps  are  not  known.  "  Canst  thou  by  searching  find 
out  God?  Canst  thou  find  out  the  Almighty  unto  perfection  ?  It  is  as  high  as 
heaven  ;  what  canst  thou  do  ?  Deeper  than  hell ;  what  canst  thou  know  ?  The 
measure  thereof  is  longer  than  the  earth,  and  broader  than  the  sea.  If  He  cut 
off  and  shut  up,  or  gather  together,  then  who  can  hinder  Him?  For  He  know- 
eth  vain  men;  Heseeth  wickedness  also  ;  will  He  not  then  consider  it?"  We 
bow  before  His  infinite  majesty.     We  bow,  we  weep,  we  worship. 

"  Where  reason  fails,  with  all  her  powers, 
There  faith  prevails,  and  love  adores." 

It  was  a  cruel,  cruel  hand,  the  dark  hand  of  the  assassin,  which  smote  our 
honored,  wise,  and  noble  President,  and  filled  the  land  with  sorrow.  But  above 
and  beyond  that  hand  there  is  another  which  we  must  see  and  acknowledge. 
It  is  the  chastening  hand  of  a  wise  and  a  faithful  Father.  He  gives  us  the  bit- 
ter cup.    And  the  cup  that  our  Father  has  given  us,  shall  we  not  drink  it? 

"  God  of  the  just,  Thou  gaveet  us  the  cup : 
We  yield  to  Thy  behest  and  drink  it  up." 


86 

"Whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chasteneth."  0,  how  these  blessed  words  have 
cheered,  and  strengthened,  and  sustained  us  through  all  these  long  and  weary 
years  of  civil  strife,  while  our  friends  and  brothers  on  so  many  ensanguined 
fields  were  falling  and  dying  for  the  cause  of  liberty  and  union  !  Let  them 
cheer,  and  strengthen,  and  sustain  us  to-day.  True,  this  new  sorrow  and  chas- 
tening has  come  in  such  an  hour  and  in  such  a  way  as  we  thought  net,  and  it 
bears  the  impress  of  a  rod  that  is  very  heavy,  and  of  a  mystery  that  is  very 
deep.  That  such  a  life  should  be  sacrificed,  at  such  a  time,  by  such  a  foul  and 
diabolical  agency ;  that  the  man  at  the  head  of  the  nation,  whom  the  people 
had  learned  to  trust  with  a  confiding  and  loving  confidence,  and  upon  whom 
more  than  upon  any  other  were  centered,  under  God,  our  best  hope  for  the  true 
and  speedy  pacification  of  the  country,  the  restoration  of  the  Union,  and  the 
return  of  harmony  and  love  ;  that  he  should  be  taken  from  us,  and  taken  just 
as  the  prospect  of  peace  was  brightly  opening  upon  our  torn  and  bleeding 
country,  and  just  as  he  was  beginning  to  be  animated  and  gladdened  with  the 
hope  of  ere  long  enjoying,  with  the  people,  the  blessed  fruit  and  reward  of  his 
and  their  toil,  and  care,  and  patience,  and  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  the  inter- 
ests of  liberty  and  the  Union — 0,  it  is  a  mysterious  and  most  afflicting  visita- 
tion. But  it  is  our  Father  in  heaven,  the  God  of  our  fathers,  and  our  God,  who 
permits  us  to  be  so  suddenly  and  sorely  smitten  ;  and  we  know  that  His  judg- 
ments are  right,  and  that  in  faithfulness  He  has  afflicted  us.  In  the  midst  of 
our  rejoicings  we  needed  this  stroke,  this  dealing,  this  discipline  ;  and  there- 
fore He  has  sent  it.  Let  us  remember,  our  affliction  has  not  come  forth  of  tha 
dust,  and  our  trouble  has  not  sprung  out  of  the  ground.  Through  and  beyond 
all  second  causes  let  us  look,  and  see  the  sovereign  permissive  agency  of  the 
great  First  Cause.  It  is  His  prerogative  to  bring  light  out  of  darkness  and  good 
out  of  evil.  Surely  the  wrath  of  man  shall  praise  Him,  and  the  remainder  of 
wrath  He  will  restrain.  In  the  light  of  a  clearer  day  we  may  yet  see  that  tha 
wrath  which  planned  and  perpetrated  the  death  of  the  President  was  overruled 
by  Him  whose  judgments  are  unsearchable,  and  His  ways  past  finding  out,  for 
the  highest  welfare  of  all  those  interests  which  are  so  dear  to  the  Christian  pa- 
triot and  philanthropist,  and  for  which  a  loyal  people  have  made  such  an  un- 
exampled sacrifice  of  treasure  and  of  blood.  Let  us  not  be  faithless,  but 
believing. 

"Blind  unbelief  is  prone  to  err. 
And  scan  His  work  in  vain; 
God  is  His  own  interpreter, 
And  Ho  will  make  it  plain." 

We  will  wait  for  His  interpretation,  and  we  will  wait  in  faith,  nothing  doubt- 
ing. He  who  has  led  us  so  well,  and  defended  and  prospered  us  so  wonderfully, 
during  the  last  four  years  of  toil,  and  struggle,  and  sorrow,  wiU  not  forsake  us 
now.  He  may  chasten,  but  He  will  not  destroy.  He  may  purify  us  more  and 
more  in  the  furnace  of  trial,  but  He  will  not  consume  us.  No,  no!  He  has 
chosen  us,  as  He  did  His  people  of  old,  in  the  furnace  of  affliction,  and  He  has 
said  of  us  as  He  said  of  them, "  This  people  have  I  formed  for  myself;  they 
shall   show  forth  my  praise."     Let  our  principal  anxiety  now  be  that  this 


87 

new  sorrow  may  be  a  sanctified  sorrow  ;  that  it  may  lead  us  to  deeper  repent- 
ance, to  a  more  humbling  sense  of  our  dependence  upon  God,  and  to  the  more 
unreserved  consecration  of  ourselves  and  all  that  we  have  to  the  cause  of  .ruth 
and  justice,  of  law  and  order,  of  liberty  and  good  government,  of  pure  and 
undefiled  religion.  Then,  though  weeping  may  endure  for  a  night,  joy  will 
come  in  the  morning.  Blessed  be  God !  despite  of  this  great,  and  sudden,  and 
temporary  darkness,  the  morning  has  begun  to  dawn — the  morning  of  a  bright 
and  glorious  day,  such  as  our  country  has  never  seen.  That  day  will  come 
and  not  tarry,  and  the  death  of  a  hundred  Presidents  and  their  Cabinets  can 
never,  never  prevent  it.  While  we  are  thus  hopeful,  however,  let  us  also  be 
humble.  The  occasion  calls  us  to  prayerful  and  tearful  humiliation.  It  de- 
mands of  us  that  we  live  low,  very  low,  before  Him  who  has  smitten  us  for  our 
sins.  Oh,  that  all  our  Rulers  and  all  our  people  may  bow  in  the  dust  to-day 
beneath  the  chastening  hand  of  God !  and  may  their  voices  go  up  to  Him  as 
one  voice,  and  their  hearts  go  up  to  Him  as  one  heart,  pleading  with  Him  for 
mercy,  for  grace  to  sanctify  our  great  and  sore  bereavement,  and  for  wisdom  to 
guide  us  in  this  our  time  of  need.  Such  a  united  cry  and  pleading  will  not  bo 
'  in  vain.  It  will  enter  into  the  ear  and  heart  of  Him  who  sits  upon  the  throne, 
and  He  will  say  to  us,  as  to  His  ancient  Israel,  "  In  a  little  wrath  I  hid  my 
face  from  thee  for  a  moment ;  but  with  everlasting  kindness  will  I  have  mercy 
upon  thee,  saith  the  Lord,  thy  Redeemer." 

I  have  said  that  the  people  confided  in  the  late  lamented  President  with  a 
full  and  a  loving  confidence.  Probably  no  man  since  the  days  of  Washington 
was  ever  so  deeply  and  firmly  embedded  and  enshrined  in  the  very  hearts  of 
the  people  as  Abraham  Lincoln.  Nor  was  it  a  mistaken  confidence  and  love. 
He  deserved  it — deserved  it  well — deserved  it  all.  He  merited  it  by  his  char- 
acter, by  his  acts,  and  by  the  whole  tenor,  and  tone,  and  spirit  of  his  life.  Ho 
was  simple  and  sincere,  plain  and  honest,  truthful  and  just,  benevolent  and 
kind.  His  perceptions  were  quick  and  clear,  his  judgment  was  calm  and 
accurate,  and  his  purposes  were  good  and  pure  beyond  a  question.  Alwaj'^s  and 
everywhere  he  aimed  and  endeavored  to  he  right  and  to  do  right.  His  integrity 
was  thorough,  all-pervading,  all-controlling,  and  incorruptible.  It  was  the 
same  in  every  place  and  relation,  in  the  consideration  and  the  control  of  mat- 
ters great  or  6ma)i,  the  same  firm  and  steady  principle  of  power  and  beauty 
that  shed  a  clear  and  crowning  lustre  upon  all  his  other  excellences  of  mind 
and  heart,  and  recommended  him  to  his  fellow-citizens  as  tlie  man,  who,  in  a 
time  of  unexampled  peril,  when  the  very  life  of  the  nation  was  at  stake,  should 
be  chosen  to  occupy,  in  the  country  and  for  the  country,  its  highest  post  of 
power  and  responsibility.  How  wisely  and  well,  how  purely  and  faithfully, 
how  firmly  and  steadily,  how  justly  and  successfully  he  did  occupy  that  post 
and  meet  its  grave  demands  in  circumstances  of  surpassing  trial  and  difficulty, 
is  known  to  you  all,  known  to  the  country  and  the  world.  He  comprehended 
from  the  first  the  perils  to  which  treason  had  exposed  the  freest  and  best  Gov- 
ernment on  the  earth,  the  vast  interests  of  liberty  and  humanity  that  were  to 
be  saved  or  lost  forever  in  the  urgent  impending  conflict ;  he  rose  to  the  dignity 
and  momentousness  of  the  occasion,  saw  his  duty  as  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  a 
great  and  imperilled  people,  and  he  determined  to  do  his  duty,  and  his  whole 


88 

duty,  seeking  the  guidance  and  leaning  upon  the  arm  of  Him  of  whom  it  is 
written,  "He  giveth  power  to  the  faint,  and  to  them  that  have  no  might  he 
increaseth  strength."  Yes;  he  leaned  upon  His  arm.  He  recognized  and  re- 
ceived the  truth  that  "  the  kingdom  is  the  Lord's,  and  He  is  the  governor 
among  the  nations."  Ho  remembered  that  "  God  is  in  history,"  and  he  felt 
that  nowhere  had  His  hand  and  His  mercy  been  so  marvellously  conspiiuous  as 
in  the  history  of  this  nation.  He  hoped  and  he  prayed  that  that  same  hand 
would  continue  to  guide  us,  and  that  same  mercy  continue  to  abound  to  us  in 
the  time  of  our  greatest  need.  I  speak  what  I  know,  and  testify  what  I  have 
often  heard  him  say,  when  I  affirm  that  that  guidance  and  mercy  were  the 
prop  on  which  he  humbly  and  habitually  leaned ;  they  were  the  best  hope  he 
had  for  himself  and  for  his  country.  Hence,  when  he  was  leaving  his  home  in 
Illinois,  and  coming  to  this  city  to  take  his  seat  in  the  executive  chair  of  a  dis- 
turbed and  troubled  nation,  he  said  to  the  old  and  tried  friends  who  gathered 
tearfully  around  him  and  bade  him  farewell,  "  I  leave  you  with  this  request; 
pray  for  mc."  They  did  pray  for  him;  and  millions  of  others  prayed  for 
him ;  nor  did  they  pray  in  vain.  Their  prayer  was  heard,  and  the  answer 
appears  in  all  his  subsequent  history  ;  it  shines  forth  with  a  heavenly  radiance 
in  the  whole  course  and  tenor  of  his  administration,  from  its  commencement 
to  its  close. 

God  raised  him  up  for  a  great  and  glorious  mission,  furnished  him  for  his  work, 
and  aided  him  in  its  accomplishment.  Nor  was  it  merely  by  strength  of  mind 
and  honesty  of  heart,  and  purity  and  pertinacity  of  purpose,  that  He  furnished 
him ;  in  addition  to  these  things  He  gave  him  a  calm  and  abiding  confidence  in 
the  overruling  providence  of  God,  and  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  truth  and 
righteousness  through  the  power  and  blessing  of  God.  This  confidence 
strengthened  him  in  all  his  hours  of  anxiety  and  toil,  and  inspired  him  with 
calm  aud  cheering  hope  when  others  were  inclining  to  despondency  and  gloom. 
Never  shall  I  forget  the  emphasis  and  the  deep  emotion  with  which  he  said,  in 
this  very  room,  to  a  company  of  clergymen  and  others,  who  called  to  pay  him 
their  respects  in  the  darkest  days  of  our  civil  conflict:  "  Gentlemen,  my  hope  of 
success  in  this  great  and  terrible  struggle  rests  on  that  immutable  foundation, 
the  justice  and  goodness  of  God.  And  when  events  are  very  threatening,  and 
prospects  very  dark,  I  still  hope  that  in  some  way  which  man  cannot  see  all 
will  be  well  in  the  end,  because  our  cause  is  just,  and  God  is  on  our  side."  Such 
was  his  sublime  and  holy  faith,  and  it  was  an  anchor  to  his  soul,  both  sure  and 
steadfast.  It  made  him  firm  and  strong.  It  emboldened  him  in  the  pathway 
of  duty,  however  rugged  and  perilous  it  might  be.  It  made  him  valiant  for 
the  right;  for  the  cause  of  God  and  humanity;  and  it  held  him  in  steady, 
patient,  and  unswerving  adherence  to  a  policy  of  administration  which  he 
thought,  and  which  all  now  think,  both  God  and  humanity  required  him  to 
adopt.  We  admired  and  loved  him  on  many  accounts — for  strong  and  various 
reasons;  we  admired  his  childlike  simplicity,  his  freedom  from  guile  and  deceit, 
his  staunch  and  sterling  integrity,  his  kind  and  forgiving  temper,  his  industry 
and  patience,  his  persistent,  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  all  the  duties  of  his 
eminent  position,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest;  his  readiness  to  hear  and  con- 
sider the  cause  of  the  poor  and  humble,  the  suffering  and  the  oppressed ;  his 


89 

charity  toward  those  who  questioned  the  correctness  of  his  opinions  and  the 
wisdom  of  his  policy ;  his  wonderful  skill  in  reconciling  differences  among  the 
friends  of  the  Union,  leading  them  away  from  abstractions,  and  inducing  them 
to  work  together  and  harmoniously  for  the  common  weal ;  his  true  and  enlarged 
philanthropy  that  knew  no  distinction  of  color  and  race,  but  regarded  all  men 
as  brethren,  and  endowed  alike  by  their  Creator  "  with  certain  inalienable 
rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ;"  his  inflexi- 
ble purpose,  that  what  freedom  had  gained  in  our  terrible  civil  strife  should 
never  be  lost,  and  that  the  end  of  the  war  should  be  the  end  of  slavery,  an4, 
as  a  consequence,  of  rebellion ;  his  readiness  to  spend  and  be  spent  for  the 
attainment  of  such  a  triumph — a  triumph  the  blessed  fruits  of  which  shall  be 
as  wide-spreading  as  the  earth,  and  as  enduring  as  the  sun.  All  these  things 
commanded  and  fixed  our  admiration,  and  the  admiration  of  the  world,  and 
stamped  upon  his  character  and  life  the  unmistakable  impress  of  greatness. 

But  more  sublime  than  any  or  all  of  these,  more  holy  and  influential,  more 
beautiful  and  strong  and  sustaining,  was  his  abiding  confidence  in  God,  and  in 
the  final  triumph  of  truth  and  righteousness  through  Him  and  for  His  sake. 
This  was  his  noblest  virtue,  his  grandest  principle,  the  secret  alike  of  his  strength, 
his  patience,  and  his  success.     And  this,  it  seems  to  me,  after  being  near  him 
steadily,  and  with  him  often,  for  more  than  four  years,  is  the  principle  by  which 
more  than  by  any  other  "  he,  being  dead,  yet  speaketh."     Yes;  by  his  steady, 
enduring  confidence  in  God,  and  in  the  complete  ultimate  success  of  the  cause 
of  God,  which  is  the  cause  of  humanity,  more  than  in  any  other  way,  does  he 
now  speak  to  us  and  to  the  nation  he  loved  and  served  so  well.     By  this  he 
speaks  to  his  successor  in  ofiice,  and  charges  him  to  have  faith  in  God.    By  this 
he  speaks  to  the  members  of  his  cabinet,  the  men  with  whom  he  counseled  so 
often  and  v/as  associated  so  long,  and  he  charges  them  to  have  faith  in  God, 
By  this  he  speaks  to  all  who  occupy  positions  of  influence  and  authority  in  these 
sad  and  troublous  times,  and  he  charges  them  all  to  have  faith  in  God.     By 
this  he  speaks  to  this  great  people  as  they  sit  in  sackcloth  to-day,  and  weep  for 
him  with  a  bitter  wailing,  and  refuse  to  be  comforted,  and  he  charges  them  to 
have  faith  in  God.     And  by  this  he  will  speak  through  the  ages  and  to  all 
rulers  and  peoples  in  every  land,  and  his  message  to  them  will  be,  "  Cling  to 
liberty  and  right;  battle  for  them,  bleed  for  them,  die  for  them  if  need  be; 
and  have  confidence  in  God."     Oh  that  the  voice  of  this  testimony  may  sink 
down  into  our  hearts  to-day  and  every  day,  and  into  the  heart  of  the  nation, 
and  exert  its  appropriate  influence  upon  our  feelings,  our  faith,  our  patience, 
and  our  devotion  to  the  cause  now  dearer  to  us  than  ever  before,  because  con- 
secrated by  the  blood  of  its  most  conspicuous  defender,  its  wisest  and  most 
fondly-trusted  friend.     He  is  dead ;  but  the  God  in  whom  he  trusted  lives,  and 
He  can  guide  and  strengthen  his  successor,  as  He  guided  and  strengthened  him. 
He  is  dead;  but  the  memory  of  his  virtues,  of  his  wise  and  patriotic  counsels 
and  labors,  of  his  calm  and  steady  faith  in  God,  lives,  is  precious,  and  will  be 
a  power  for  good  in  the  country  quite  down  to  the  end  of  time.     He  is  dead  ; 
but  the  cause  he  so  ardently  loved,  so  ably,  patiently,  faithfully  represented 
and  defended — not  for  himself  only,  not  for  us  only,  but  for  all  people  in  all 
noming  generations,  till  time  shall  be  no  more — that  cause  survives  his  fall, 


90 

and  will  survive  it.     The  light  of  its  brightening  prospects  flashes  cheeringly 
to-day  athwart  the  gloom  occasioned  by  his  death,  and  the  language  of  God'a 
united  providences  is  telling  us  that,  though  the  friends  of  liberty  die,  liberty 
itself  is  immortal.     There  is  no  assassin  strong  enough,  and  no  weapon  deadly 
enough,  to  quench  its  inextinguishable  life,  or  arrest  its  onward  march  to  the 
conquest  and  empire  of  the  world.     This  is  our  confidence,  and  this  is  our  con- 
Bolation,  as  we  weep  and  mourn  to-day.     Though  our  beloved  President  is 
Blain,  our  beloved  country  is  saved.     And  so  we  sing  of  mercy  as  well  as  of 
judgment.     Tears  of  gratitude  mingle  with  those  of  sorrow.     While  there  is 
darkness  there  is  also  the  dawning  of  a  brighter,  happier  day  upon  our  stricken 
and  weary  land.     God  be  praised  that  our  fallen  chief  lived  long  enough  to 
see  the  day  dawn  and  the  day-star  of  joy  and  peace  arise  upon  the  nation. 
He  saw  it,  and  he  was  glad.     Alas,  alas  !    he  only  saw  the  dawn.     When  the 
iun  has  risen,  full-orbed  and  glorious,  and  a  happy  reunited  people  are  rejoic- 
ing in  its  light,  it  will  shine  upon  his  grave.    But  that  grave  will  be  a  precious 
and  a  consecrated  spot.     The  friends  of  liberty  and  of  the  Union  will  repair 
to  it  in  years  and  ages  to  come,  to  pronounce  the  memory  of  its  occupant 
blessed,  and,  gathering  from  his  very  ashes,  and  from  the  rehearsal  of  his  deeds 
and  virtues,  fresh  incentives  to  patriotism,  they  will  there  renew  their  vows 
of  fidelity  to  their  country  and  their  God. 

And  now  I  know  not  that  I  can  more  appropriately  conclude  this  discourse, 
which  is  but  a  sincere  and  simple  utterance  of  the  heart,  than  by  addressing  to 
our  departed  President,  with  some  slight  modification,  the  language  which 
Tacitus,  in  his  life  of  Agricola,  addresses  to  his  venerable  and  departed  father- 
in-law  :  "With  you  we  may  now  congratulate;  you  are  blessed,  not  only 
because  your  life  was  a  career  of  glory,  but  because  you  were  released,  when, 
your  country  safe,  it  was  happiness  to  die.     We  have  lost  a  parent,  and,  in  our 
distress,  it  is  now  an  addition  to  our  heartfelt  sorrow  that  we  had  it  not  in  our 
power  to  coinmune  with  you  on  the  bed  of  languishing,  and  receive  your  last 
embrace.    Your  dying  words  would  have  been  ever  dear  to  us;  your  commands 
we  should  have  treasured  up,  and  graved  them  on  our  hearts.     This  sad  comfort 
we  have  lost,  and  tlie  wound  for  that  reason  pierces  deeper.     From  the  world 
of  spirits  behold  your  disconsolate  family  and  people ;  exalt  our  minds  from 
fond  regret  and  unavailing  grief  tb  the  contemplation  of  your  virtues.     Those 
we  must  not  lament ;  it  were  impiety  to  sully  them  with  a  tear.     To  cherish 
their  memory,  to  embalm  them  with  our  praises,  and,  so  far  as  we  can,  to  emu- 
late your  bright  example,  will  be  the   truest  mark  of  our  respect,   the  best 
tribute  we  can  offer.    Your  wife  will  thus  preserve  the  memory  of  the  best  of 
husbands,  and  thus  your  children  will  prove  their  filial  piety.     By  dwelling 
constantly  on  your  words  and  actions,  they  will  have  an  illustrious  character 
before  their  eyes,  and  not  content  with  the  bare  image  of  your  mortal  frame, 
they  will  have  what  is  more  valuable— the  form  and  features  of  your  mind. 
Busts  and  statues,  like  their  originals,  are  frail  and  perishable.     The  soul  is 
formed  of  finer  elements,  and  its  inward  form  is  not  to  be  expressed  by  the 
hand  of  an  artist  with  unconscious  matter — our  manners  and  our  morals  may 
in  some  degree  trace  the  resemblance.    All  of  you  that  gained  our  love  and 
raised  our  admiration  still  subsists,  and  will  ever  subsist,  preserved  in  the  minda 


91 

of  men,  the  register  of  ages,  and  the  records  of  fame.  Others,  who  have 
figured  on  the  stage  of  life  and  were  the  worthies  of  a  former  day,  will  sink, 
for  want  of  a  faithful  historian,  into  the  common  lot  of  oblivion,  inglorious 
and  unremembered;  but  you,  our  lamented  friend  and  head,  delineated  with 
truth,  and  fairly  consigned  to  posterity,  will  survive  yourself,  and  triumph  over 
the  injuries  of  time." 

When  the  speaker  closed,  Dr.   Grey,  the  chaplain  of  the 
United  States  Senate,  offered  the  following 

CLOSING   PRAYER  : 

0  Lord  God  of  Hosts,  behold  a  nation  prostrate  before  Thy  throne,  clothed 
in  sackcloth,  who  stand  around  all  that  now  remains  of  our  illustrious  and  be- 
loved chief.     We  thank  Thee  that  Thou  hast  given  to  us  such  a  patriot,  and  to 
the  country  such  a  ruler,  and  to  the  world  such  a  noble  specimen  of  manhood. 
We  bless  Thee  that  Thou  hast  raised  him  to   the   highest  position  of  trust  and 
power  in  the  nation ;  and  that  Thou  hast  spared  him  so  long  to  guide  and  di- 
rect the  affairs  of  the  Government  in  its  hour  of  peril  and  conflict.    We  trusted 
it  would  be  he  who  should  deliver  Israel ;  that  he  would  have  been  retained  to 
us  while  the  nation  was  passing  through  its  baptism  of  blood  ;  but  in  an  evil 
hour,  in  an  unexpected  moment,  when  joy  and  rejoicing  filled  our  souls,  and 
was  thrilling  the  heart  of  the  nation,  he  fell.   0  God,  give  grace  to  sustain  us 
under  this  dark  and  mysterious  providence  !     Help  us  to  look  up  unto  Thee  and 
say.  Not  our  will,  but  Thine,  0  God,  be  done.     We  commend  to  Thy  merciful 
regard  and  tender  compassion  the  afflicted  family  of  the  deceased.     Thou  seest 
how  their  hearts  are  stricken  with  sorrow  and  wrung  with  agony.     0  help 
them,  as  they  are  now  passing  through  the  dark  valley  and  shadow  of  death, 
to  fear  no  evil,  but  to  lean  upon  Thy  rod  and  staff  for  support.     0  help  them 
to  cast  their  burden  upon  the  Great  Burden-bearer,  and  find  relief.     Help  them 
to  look  beyond  human  agencies  and  human  means,  and  recognize  Thy  hand,  0 
God,  in  this  providence,  and  say,  It  is  the  Lord,  let  Him  do  what  seemeth  good 
in  His  sight ;  and  as  they  proceed  slowly  and  sadly  on  their  way  with  the  re- 
mains of  a  husband  and  father,  to  consign  them  to  their  last  resting  place,  may 
they  look  beyond  the  grave  to  the  morning  of  Eesurrection,  when  that  which 
they  now  sow  in  weakness  shall  be  raised  in  strength  ;  what  they  now  sow  a 
mortal  body  shall  be  raised  a  spiritual  body  ;  that  they  now  sow  in  corruption 
shall  be  raised  in  incorruption,  and  shall  be  fashioned  like  unto  Christ's  most 
glorious  body.     0   God  of  the  bereaved,  comfort  and  sustain  this  mourning 
family.     Bless  the  new  Chief  Magistrate.    Let  the  mantle  of  his  predecessor  fall 
upon  him.     Bless  the  Secretary  of  State  and  his  family.     0  God,  if  possible  ac- 
cording to  Thy  will,  spare  their  lives,  that  they  may  render  still  important  ser- 
vice to  the  country.     Bless  all  the  members  of  the  Cabinet.    Endow  them  with 
wisdom  from  above.     Bless  the  commanders  of  our  army  and  navy,  and  all  the 
brave  defenders  of  the  country,  and  give  them  continued  success.     Bless  the 


92 

ambassadors  from  foreign  courts,  and  give  us  peace  with  the  nations  of  the 
earth.  0  God,  let  treason,  that  has  deluged  our  land  with  blood,  and  devastated 
our  country,  and  bereaved  our  homes,  and  filled  them  with  widows  and  or- 
phans, and  has  at  length  culminated  in  the  assassination  of  the  nation's  chosen 
ruler — God  of  justice,  and  avenger  of  the  nation's  wrong,  let  the  work  of  trea- 
son cease,  and  let  the  guilty  author  of  this  horrible  crime  be  arrested  and 
brought  to  justice.  0  hear  the  cry,  and  the  prayer,  and  the  tears  now  rising 
from  a  nation's  crushed  and  smitten  heart,  and  deliver  us  from  the  power  of  all 
our  enemies,  and  send  speedy  ceace  unto  all  our  borders,  through  Jesus  Christ, 
our  Lord.    Amen.  , 


FUNERAL  PROCESSION  FROM  THE  PRESIDEN- 
TIAL MANSION  TO  THE  CAPITOL. 


A.  scene  so  solemn,  imposing,  and  impressive,  as  that  which 
the  national  metropolis  presented,  and  upon  which  myriad  eyes 
of  saddened  faces  were  gazing,  was  never  witnessed,  under  cir- 
cumstances so  appalling,  in  any  portion  of  our  beloved  coun- 
try.    Around  was  the  capital  city,  clad  in  the  habiliments  of 
mourning  ;   above,   the  cloudless  sky,  so  bright,  so   tranquil, 
so   cheerful,  as   if    Heaven   had,   on   that    solemn  occasion, 
specially  invited  us,  by  the  striking   contrast,   to   turn   our 
thoughts  from  the  darkness  and  the  miseries  of  this  life  to  the 
light  and  the  joy  that  shine  with  endless  lustre  beyond  it.  The 
mournful   strains  of  the  funeral   dirge,  borne  on   the  gentle 
zephyrs  of  that  summer-like  day,  touched  a  responsive  chord  in 
every  human  heart  of  the  countless  thousands  that,  with  solemn 
demeanor  and  measured  step,  followed  to  their  temporary  rest- 
ing place  in  the  Nation's  Capitol  the  cold,  inanimate  form  of 
one  who,   living,  was   the  honored    Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
American  people,  and,  dead,  will  ever  be  endeared  in  their 
fondest  memories.     Never  did  a  generous  and  grateful  people 
pay,  in  anguish  and  tears,  a  tribute  more  sincere  or  merited  to 
a  kind,  humane,  and   patriotic  chieftain  ;  never  were  the  dark 
and  bloody  deeds  of  crime  brought  out  in  relief  so  bold,  and 
in  horror  and  detestation  so  universal,  as  in  the  sublime  and  im- 
posing honors  that  day  tendered  to  the  corpse  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln.    Such  a  scene  was  the  epoch  of  a  lifetime.     Strong  men 
were  deeply  affected  ;  gentle  women  wept ;  children  were  awe- 

93 


94 

stricken  ;  none  will  ever  forget  it.  Memory  had  consecrated 
it  on  her  brightest  tablet ;  and  it  will  ever  be  thought,  spoken, 
and  written  of  as  the  sublime  homage  of  a  sorrowing  nation  at 
the  shrine  of  the  martyred  Patriot. 

The  hearse  arrived  shortly  before  the  conclusion  of  the  ser- 
vices in  the  White  House.  The  hearse  was  a  splendid  piece  of 
mechanism,  and  built  expressly  for  the  occasion.  The  lower 
base  of  the  hearse  was  fourteen  feet  long  and  seven  feet  wide, 
and  eight  feet  from  the  ground.  The  upper  base,  upon  which 
the  coffin  rested,  was  eleven  feet  long,  and  was  five  feet  below 
the  top  of  the  canopy.  The  canopy  was  surmounted  by  a  gilt 
eagle,  covered  with  crape.  The  whole  hearse  was  covered 
with  cloth,  velvet,  crape,  and  alpaca.  The  seat  was  covered 
with  hammer-cloth,  and  on  each  side  was  a  splendid  black  lamp. 
The  hearse  was  fifteen  feet  high,  and  the  coffin  was  so  placed 
as  to  afford  a  full  view  to  all  spectators.  It  was  drawn  by  six 
gray  horses. 

A  detailed  detachment  of  the  veteran  reserve  corps  entered 
the  room,  and,  the  coffin  having  been  closed,  conveyed  it  from 
the  catafalque  to  the  funeral  car  awaiting  it  at  the  main  en- 
trance to  the  mansion.  As  soon  as  it  was  placed  upon  the  car, 
the  gentlemen  in  the  East  Room  passed  out  in  their  appointed 
order,  fell  into  their  assigned  places,  and  the  funeral  cortege 
passed  on  in  the  broad  sunlight  to  Pennsylvania  avenue. 

At  three  o'clock  the  crowd  was  as  densely  packed  as  pos- 
sible throughout  the  entire  lengtli  of  the  procession,  from  the 
Presidential  Mansion  to  the  Capitol,  a  distance  of  a  mile. 
Every  roof,  window,  doorway,  balcony,  and  step,  as  well  as  the 
pavements  and  the  portion  of  the  street  between  the  curbs, 
upon  which  the  eager  spectators  could  not  be  prevented  from 
somewhat  infringing,  was  overwhelmingly  crowded.  The 
spectacle  was  grand  beyond  description,  and  the  demonstrations 
of  the  people,  as  the  funeral  cortege  passed,  were  most  touch- 
ing. The  colored  people  formed  a  large  portion  of  the  crowd, 
and  their  tearful  eyes  and  sorrowful  countenances,  as  the  hearse 
which  contained  the  remains  of  their  friend  and  liberator 
passed,  only  expressed  the  mourning  of  the  nation  over  the 
death  of  its  best  defender. 


95 

The  number  in  the  procession  could  not  have  been  less  than 
forty  thousand,  and  sixty  thousand  more  were  spectators  of  the 
solemn  pageant. 

ORDER  OP  THE  PROCESSION. 

Funeral  escort  in  column  of  march. 
The  following  was  in  the  main  the  order  of  procession: 

Tenth  Regiment  Veteran  Reserve  Corps,  ]\Iajor  George  Bowers  commanding, 
followed  by  the  drum  corps  of  the  regiment. 

The  9th  Regiment  Veteran  Reserve  Corps,  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Colonel 
R.  E.  Johnson,  followed  by  the  band  of  the  regiment  playing  a  dirge. 

Colonel  George  W.  Gile  was  in  command  of  the  brigade,  whose  flags  were 
draped  in  mourning.    The  men  marched  with  reversed  arms  and  muffled  drums. 

Battalion  of  Marines,  commanded  by  Major  Graham  ;  the  companies  in  charge 
of  Lieutenants  A.  B.  Young,  J.  M.  T.  Young,  Miller,  Reed,  and  Bigelow. 

The  Marine  Band,  composed  of  thirty-five  pieces,  and  a  drum  corps,  consist- 
ing of  twenty-two  pieces,  under  the  conductorship  of  Professor  Scala,  their 
leader.  This  band  played  the  funeral  march,  composed  by  Brevet  Major  Gen- 
eral J.  G.  Barnard,  which  was  dedicated  to  the  occasion. 

A  detachment  of  artillery  from  Camp  Barry,  consisting  of  eight  brass  pieces 
draped  in  mourning.  Sections  A  and  F,  1st  United  States  Artillery,  were  com- 
manded by  Captain  Norris ;  first  section,  battery  A,  4th  Artillery,  was  com- 
manded by  Lieutenant  King ;  and  first  sections  of  batteries  C  and  E  were  com- 
manded by  Lieutenant  Smith,  the  whole  being  under  the  command  of  Brigadier 
General  Hall. 

Sixteenth  New  York  Cavalry;  two  battalions  of  the  16th  Illinois  Cavalry  ; 
and  one  battalion  of  the  18th  Illinois  Cavalry,  under  the  command  of  Colonel 
M.  B.  Sweitzer. 

Band  of  the  16th  New  York  Cavalry. 

Commander  of  escort.  Major  General  Augur,  and  Staff 

General  Hardee  and  Staff. 

General  Gamble  and  Staff. 

Dismounted  ofiicers  of  the  Marine  Corps,  Navy,  and  Army,  nearly  three  hun- 
dred in  number. 

Mounted  officers  of  Marine  Corps,  Navy,  and  Army,  in  very  large  numbers. 

Amongst  the  officers  of  the  Navy  in  the  line  of  procession  were  Rear  Admirals 
Goldsborough,  Porter,  Davis,  and  Smith;  Commodores  Montgomery  and  Har- 
wood;  and  Captains  Clissen,  Cooper,  Brissell,  Taylor,  Wyman,  and  Stone. 

Among  the  military  officers  were  Brigadier  General  James  B.  Fry,  Provost 
Marshal  General  of  the  United  States,  and  many  others. 

Several  hundred  paroled  officers  of  the  army,  who  came  specially  from  An- 
napolis to  take  part  in  the  ceremonies.  They  were  the  only  officers  without  side 
arms,  which  they  could  not  use  until  exchanged. 


96 

Medical  staff  of  the  army,  consisting  of  officers  connected  ■with  the  Medical 
Department  and  surgeons  on  duty  in  hospitals,  &c.,  in  and  about  Washington. 

Paymasters  of  the  United  States  Army,  under  the  command  of  Brevet  Briga- 
dier General  B.  W.  Brice,  Paymaster  General. 

Civic  Procession. 

Marshal  Ward  H.  Lamon,  supported  by  his  aids. 

The  clergy  in  attendance :  The  Rev.  P.  D.  Gurley,  D.  D. ;  Pvev.  Charles  H. 
Hall,  D.  D.;  Rev.  Bishop  Simpson,  D.  D. ;  and  Rev.  E.  H.  Gray,  D.  D. 

Surgeon  General  Barnes,  of  the  United  States  army,  and  Dr.  Stone,  physi- 
cians of  the  deceased. 

Pall  Bearers. 

On  the  part  of  the  Senate:  Mr.  Foster,  of  Connecticut;  Mr.  Morgan,  of  New 
York ;  Mr.  Johnson,  of  Maryland ;  Mr.  Yates,  of  Illinois  ;  Mr.  Wade,  of  Ohio ; 
Mr.  Conness,  of  California.  On  the  part  of  the  House :  Mr.  Dawes,  of  Massa- 
chusetts ;  Mr.  Coffroth,  of  Pennsylvania;  Mr.  Smith,  of  Kentucky;  Mr.  Col- 
fax, of  Indiana;  Mr.  Worthington,  of  Nevada;  Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois. 
On  the  part  of  the  Army  :  Lieutenant  General  U.  S.  Grant;  Major  General  H. 
W.  Halleck ;  Brevet  Brigadier  General  Nichols.  On  the  part  of  the  Navy  : 
Vice  Admiral  Farragut ;  Rear  Admiral  Shubrick  ;  Colonel  Jacob  Zeilen,  Ma- 
rine Corps.  Civilians :  O.  H.  Browning ;  George  Ashmun  ;  Thomas  Corwin  ; 
Simon  Cameron. 

The  HEARSE,  drawn  by  six  gray  horses,  each  of  which  was  led  by  a  groom. 

The  horse  of  deceased,  led  by  two  grooms,  caparisoned. 

The  family  of  the  deceased,  relatives,  private  secretaries,  and  friends. 

Delegations  of  the  States  of  Illinois  and  Kentucky,  as  mourners. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  accompanied  by  Hon.  Preston  King. 

Members  of  the  Cabinet. 

The  Diplomatic  Corps,  in  full  Court  dress. 

Ex- Vice  President  Hamlin. 

Chief  Justice  S.  P.  Chase,  and  the  Associate  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States. 

The  Senate  of  the  United  States,  with  their  officers — John  W.  Forney,  Esq., 
Secretary ;  William  Hickey,  Esq.,  Chief  Clerk ;  George  T.  Brown,  Esq.,  Ser- 
geant-at-Arms  ;  and  Isaac  Bassett,  Esq.,  Assistant  Sergeant-at-Arms. 

Members  of  the  late  and  the  next  House  of  Representatives,  with  the  officers 
of  the  last  House — Hon.  Edward  McPherson,  Clerk  ;  Hon.  N.  G.  Ordway,  Ser- 
geant-at-Arms ;  and  Ira  Goodenow,  Doorkeeper. 

Governors  of  the  several  States  and  Territories,  a  very  full  attendance. 

Members  of  the  several  State  and  Territorial  Legislatures. 

Chief  Justice  Casey,  and  Associate  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Claims. 

The  Federal  Judiciary,  and  the  Judiciary  of  the  several  States  and  Territories, 

Assistant  Secretaries  of  the  several  Departments. 

Professor  Henry,  and  the  other  officers  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

Members  and  officers  of  the  Sanitary  and  Christian  Commissions. 


9T 

The  Judges  of  the  several  Courts,  and  Members  of  the  Bar  of  the  city  of 
Washington. 

Band. 

"Washington  Commandery  of  Knights  Templar,  S.  P.  Bell,  Marshal,  preceded 
by  the  Band  of  the  Campbell  Hospital,  carrying  the  banners  of  their  Order. 

The  Councils  and  other  members  of  the  Corporation  of  the  City  of  Baltimore. 

Members  of  the  Corporation  of  Alexandria. 

Members  of  the  Councils  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

The  Select  and  Common  Councils  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  Also,  delega- 
tions from  the  civic  authorities  of  Boston,  and  Brooklyn,  New  York. 

Committee  of  the  Union  League,  of  Philadelphia,  headed  by  Horace  Binney, 
Jr.,  Esq.,  and  Morton  McMichael,  Esq. 

Members  of  the  Christian  Commission  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 

Band. 

The  Perseverance  Hose  Company,  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  of  which 
President  Lincoln  was  an  honorary  member,  in  black  suits,  with  badges  on 
their  hats  designating  their  organization.  They  were  headed  by  their  Presi- 
dent, John  G.  Butler,  Esq.,  chief  coiner  of  the  United  States  Mint,  and  Chief 
Dickson,  of  the  Washington  Fire  Department.  The  company  numbered  eighty 
men. 

The  Corporate  Authorities  of  Washington  and  Georgetown,  headed  by  Mayors 
of  five  cities — Washington,  Georgetown,  Alexandria,  Baltimore,  and  Boston. 

Ministers  of  the  various  religious  denominations,  white  and  colored. 

Delegations  from  the  various  States  in  the  following  order: 

Massachusetts,  about  seventy-five  in  number,  besides  the  band,  which  they 
brought  from  Boston.  The  State  flag  which  they  bore  was  draped  in  mourn- 
ing. Maj.  Gen.  B.  F.  Butler,  in  citizen's  dress,  occupied  a  position  in  this  por- 
tion of  the  line;  Marshal,  Gardiner  Tufts.  New  Hampshire,  numbering  about 
twenty  men ;  Marshal,  Matthew  G.  Emery. 

Ohio  had  80, men  in  line,  under  the  marshalship  of  H.  M.  Slade,  Esq. 

New  York  numbered  300. 

New  Jersey  was  represented  by  one  hundred  of  her  sons,  and  led  by  Mr. 
Prevost,  acting  marshal. 

California,  Oregon,  and  Nevada  united,  and  had  one  hundred  representatives 
of  the  far  West,  under  the  marshalship  of  Mr.  Wray. 

Maine  was  led  by  Mr.  S.  P.  Brown,  and  turned  out  a  very  large  and  respecta- 
ble crowd. 

Band. 

The  heads  and  chiefs  of  Bureaus  of  the  Treasury  Department,  under  the 
marshalship  of  Mr.  A.  E.  Edwards,  assisted  by  Capt.  Jones  and  Col.  Willett, 
preceded  by  the  Band  of  the  Treasury  Regiment.  They  carried  with  them  the 
flag  torn  by  Booth,  as  he  leaped  to  the  stage  of  Ford's  Theatre  on  the  night  of 
the  assassination. 

The  Journeymen  Bookbinders  and  Printers  of  the  Government  establishment, 
marshalled  by  Mr.  George  W.  Francis. 

The  War  Department  employees  turned  out  in  large  force,  and  were  mar- 
shalled by  Mr.  Potts. 
1 


98 

The  Tension  OfSce  had  one  hundred  employees  in  lino,  marshalled  by  Com- 
jnissioner  Barrett,  and  Mr.  Pearson,  chief  clerk. 

The  clerks  and  employees  of  the  Post  Office  Department  were  marshalled  by 
Dr.  McDonald  and  Maj.  Scott. 

The  clerks  of  the  Ordnance  Office. 

The  clerks  of  the  Agricultural  Bureau. 

Quartermaster's  Band. 

Major  General  M.  C.  Meigs,  and  the  following  heads  of  divisions  of  the 
Quartermaster's  Department: 

Col.  G.  V.  Eutherford,  Col.  B.  C  Card,  Col.  S.  L.  Brown,  Col.  A.  J.  Perry, 
Col.  John  D.  Wise,  Col.  J.  D.  Bingham,  and  Col.  L.  B.  Parsons. 

A  brigade,  composed  of  the  employees  of  the  Quartermaster's  Department. 

Office  battalion  Quartermaster's  regiment,  ]\Iajor  Wagner  commanding. 

First  regiment  Quartermaster's  Volunteers,  Col.  C.  H.  Tompkins  command- 
ing. 

Second  Regiment,  Col.  J.  M.  Moore  commanding. 

Brig.  Gen.  Rucker  commanded  the  brigade,  and  Brig.  Gen.  J.  A.  Ekin  and 
Col.  J.  J.  Dana  were  the  marshals. 

Clerks  in  the  Quartermaster's  Department,  in  citizens'  dress. 

Eight  survivors  of  the  war  of  1812,  viz:  Chapman  Lee,  Fielder  R.  Dorsett, 
Smith  Minor,  Thomas  Foster,  R.M.  Harrison,  Isaac  Burch,  Joseph  P.  Wolf,  and 
Captain  John  ^loore. 

The  clerks  and  employees  of  the  Baltimore  Custom  House  and  Post  Office, 
marshalled  by  Dr.  E.  C.  Gaskill,  one  hundred  and  eighty  in  number,  accompanied 
by  the  fine  band  of  the  8th  Regiment,  United  States  Infantry,  which  is  stationed 
in  Baltimore. 

Society  of  the  Brotherhood  of  the  Union,  Capitol  Circle,  No.  1,  located  at  the 
Navy-Yard;  Thomas  H.  Robinson,  Marshal. 

Band. 

The  Fenian  Brotherhood,  ]\Iarshal  P.  H.  Donegan,  State  Centre,  D.  C.  They 
numbered  some  three  hundred  men,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  being  from 
Georgetown  ;  their  flag  was  draped  in  mourning. 

A  detachment  of  the  guard  stationed  at  Seminary  Hospital,  Georgetown, 
marshalled  by  Sergeant  Conway. 

Band. 

About  a  thousand  employees  of  the  United  States  Military  Railroad,  under 
the  command  of  General  McCullum,  many  of  them  from  Alexandria. 

The  National  Republican  Association  of  the  Seventh  Ward,  marshalled  by 
Captain  McConnell  and  F.  A.  Boswell. 

A  delegation  of  citizens  of  Alexandria,  headed  by  the  band  attached  to  Gen- 
eral Slough's  headquarters. 

A  wagon,  containing  a  large  banner,  on  both  sides  of  which  was  inscribed 
*'  Alexandria  mourns  the  national  loss." 
Firemen  of  Alexandria:  Friendship  and  Sun  Fire  Companies. 
Civic  societies  of  Alexandria  :  Andrew  Jackson  Lodge  A.  Y.  M.    A  delegation 
from  the  Christian  Commission  of  Alexandria. 
Two  German  Glee  Clubs. 


99 

The  Mount  Vernon  Absuv^lation. 

The  Potomac  Hose  Company,  of  Georgetown ;  Samuel  E.  Swain,  Marshal. 
About  four  hundred  convalescents  from  the  Lincoln  Hospital,  preceded  by 
their  band. 

Workingmen  and  mechanics  of  the  Mount  Clair  Works,  Baltimore,  to  the 
number  of  seven  hundred,  were  marshalled  by  William  H.  Shepley. 

Convalescents  from  Finley  Hospital  to  the  number  of  nearly  three  hundred, 
under  charge  of  Steward  Hill. 

The  harness-makers,  saddlers,  and  other  operatives  employed  at  the  Arsenal, 
under  the  marshalship  of  William  H.  Godren. 

The  pupils  of  Gonzaga  College,  to  the  number  of  two  hundred  and  fifty,  were 
under  the  charge  of  Father  Wiget,  with  whom  were  a  number  of  Catholic 
clergymen  and  teachers. 
Band. 

Union  Leagues  of  East  Baltimore,  Washington,  Georgetown,  and  New  York, 
marshalled  by  James  D.  McKean. 

German  Societies  and  citizens :  Relief  Association  of  Washington,  mounted ; 
Belief  Association,  on  foot;  Turners  of  Washington  ;  Washington  Sangerbund; 
Germania  Lodge,  No.  1,  Order  of  Odd  Fellows ;  Franklin  Lodge  of  Independ- 
ent Brothers,  No.  1 ;  and  the  Swiss  Association ;  Marshal — Colonel  Joseph  Ger- 
hardt,  assisted  by  Messrs.  Charles  Walter,  F.  Stosch,  M.  Rosenburg,  F.  Martin, 
Andrew  Lutz,  and  Franz  Buehler.  The  delegation  was  headed  by  Lebnartz's 
Baltimore  band. 

The  Sons  of  Temperance  were  well  represented.  The  Grand  Division  was 
preceded  by  the  band  of  Carver  Hospital,  and  was  marshalled  by  G.  W.  P., 
F.  M.  Bradley ;  Divisions  No.  1  and  10,  Good  Samaritan  and  Meridian,  mar- 
shalled by  P.  W.  Summy  ;  Excelsior  Division,  No.  6,  Federal  City  Division,  No. 
2,  and  Equal  Division,  No.  3,  marshalled  by  S.  C.  Spurgeon  and  S.  S.  Bond,  and 
preceded  by  a  band;  Aurora  Division,  No.  9,  (Finley  Hospital,)  marshalled  by 
H.  D.  ^laynard ;  Lincoln  Division,  marshalled  by  M.  F.  Kelley ;  Mount  Pleas- 
ant Division,  Sergeant  0.  G.  Lane,  Marshal.  Cliflburne  Division;  J.  M.  Roney, 
Marshal;  Mount  Vernon  and  McKee  Divisions,  Alexandria;  T.  D.  Dolan,  Mar- 
shal ;  Everett  Division,  No.  25,  (Camp  Barry;)  W.  H.  Perkins,  Marshal. 

The  Columbia  Typographical  Society  mustered  one  hundred  and  forty  men, 
and  was  marshalled  by  ]\Ir.  L.  F.  Clements. 

The  Hebrew  Congregation,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  men,  marshalled  by 
B.  Kaufmac. 

A  delegation  of  two  or  three  hundred  Italians,  under  the  marshalship  of  ex- 
Lieutenant  Maggi,  formerly  of  the  39th  New  York  regiment.  They  carried  the 
national  flag  of  Italy  and  the  flag  of  the  United  States. 

Convalescents  from  Emory  Hospital,  under  the  charge  of  Hospital  Steward 
W.  C.  BranhiU. 

Colored  people  to  the  number  of  several  thousand,  among  whom  were  the 
following: 

The  Annual  Conference  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  headed 
by  the  Right  Reverend  Bishops  Payne  and  Wayman. 
Clergy  of  the  various  denominations. 


100 

G.  U.  0.  0.  Nazarites,  Marshal  Noah  Butler. 

Delegation  of  the  First  Colored  Christian  Commission,  of  Baltimore. 

D.  A.  Payne  Lodge  of  Good  Samaritans. 

The  G.  U.  0.  0.  Fellows,  preceded  by  the  Grand  Council. 

Blue  Lodge  of  Ancient  York  Masons. 

Masonic  Grand  Lodge  of  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

Colored  citizens  of  Baltimore ;  George  A.  Hacket,  Chief  Marshal. 

"Washington  United  Benevolent  Association,  who  carried  with  them  a  banner 
bearing  the  inscription,  "  We  mourn  our  loss." 

Band. 

Colored  men  of  Washington  Sons  of  Levi. 

Eastern  Star  Lodge,  No.  1,028,  I.  0.  0.  F. 

John  F.  Cook  Lodge,  No.  1,185. 

Union  Friendship  Lodge,  No.  891. 

Potomac  Union  Lodge,  of  Georgetown,  No.  892. 

Olive  Lodge,  No.  967,  A.  Y.  M. 

The  Catholic  Benevolent  Association,  carrying  a  banner  bearing  the  motto, 
"  In  God  we  trust." 

Harmony  Lodge  of  Odd-Fellows. 

Union  Grand  Lodge  of  Maryland. 

A  colored  regiment  from  the  front  arrived  at  precisely  two 
o'clock,  and  not  being  able  to  proceed  any  further  than  the 
corner  of  Seventh  street,  halted  in  front  of  the  Metropolitan 
Hotel,  wheeled  about,  and  became  by  that  manoeuvre  the  very 
head  and  front  of  the  procession.  They  appeared  to  be  under 
the  very  best  discipline,  and  displayed  admirable  skill  in  their 
various  exercises. 

When  the  procession  reached  the  corner  of  Fifteenth  street 
and  Pennsylvania  avenue,  one  of  the  horses  attached  to  the 
President's  carriage  became  unmanageable,  and  the  President, 
with  the  Hon.  Preston  King,  alighted  and  took  seats  in  another 
carriage. 

The  procession  surpassed  in  sentiment,  populousness,  and 
sincere  good  feeling,  anything  of  the  kind  we  have  had  in 
America.  It  was  several  miles  long,  and  in  all  its  elements 
was  full  and  tasteful.  The  scene  on  the  avenue  will  always  be 
remembered  as  the  only  occasion  on  which  that  great  thorough- 
fare was  a  real  adornment  to  the  seat  of  Government.  In  the 
tree-tops,  on  the  house-tops,  at  all  the  windows,  the  silent  and 
affected  crowds  clustered  beneath  half-masted  banners  and 
waving   crape,   to   reverentially  uncover  as  the  dark  vehicle, 


101 

bearing  its  rich  silver-mounted  coffin,  swept  along  ;  mottoes  of 
respect  and  homage  were  on  many  edifices.  The  entire  width 
of  the  avenue  was  swept  from  curb  to  curb  by  the  deep  lines. 

The  grand  and  beautiful  funeral  march,  performed  for  the 
first  time  by  the  United  States  Marine  Band,  in  the  obsequies 
of  our  deceased  and  beloved  Chief  Magistrate,  was  composed 
and  dedicated  to  the  occasion  by  Brevet  Major  General  J.  G. 
Barnard. 

Some  four  hundred  and  fifty  paroled  officers,  of  every  grade  ' 
and  arm  of  the  service,  arrived  from  Camp  Parole,  Annapolis. 
They  were  under  the  command  of  Brigadier  General  Chamber- 
lin,  and  having  met  in  front  of  the  Executive  Mansion  at  noon, 
joined  in  the  funeral  procession. 

A  joint  committee  of  the  Aldermen  and  Common  Council  of 
New  York  arrived  in  Washington,  and  stopped  at  the  Seatou 
House.  They  were  received  by  a  committee  of  the  Common 
Council  of  the  District,  and  formed  in  procession  with  the 
Common  Council  of  Washington.  Alderman  Brice  was  chair- 
man of  the  committee,  and  Owen  Cavenaugh,  secretary.  The 
badge  worn  by  the  committee  was  handsomely  draped,  the 
device  being  the  coat  of  arms  of  the  city,  having  engraved 
thereon  the  respective  names  of  the  members  of  the  body. 
The  badge  was  about  two  inches  in  circumference,  and  remark- 
ably neat  and  appropriate  in  its  appearance.  The  members  of 
this  company  constituted  a  fine-looking  body  of  men. 

The  Pliiladelphia  City  Councils,  the  Committee  of  the  Union 
League  Club  of  New  York  city,  and  the  committee  of  mer- 
chants and  citizens  of  New  York,  appeared  in  the  funeral  pro- 
cession. 

When  the  procession  started,  minute  guns  were  fired  from 
batteries  stationed  near  St.  John's  Church,  City  Hall,  and  on 
East  Capitol  street.  The  bells  of  all  the  churches  and  of  the 
fire  engine  houses  also  continually  tolled. 

The  sight  from  the  Capitol  probably  presented  the  most  im- 
posing view  of  the  procession  that  could  be  attained  at  any 
point.  Tiiosc  who  were  privileged  to  entrance  in  the  Capitol 
were  universal  in  their  declarations  that  it  was  tliegrandcst  and 
most  imposing  demonstration  tliey  liad  ever  scon.  It  appeared 
to  us  like  a  grand  panorama,  in  which  the  figures  were  stat- 


102 

uesque,  and  gradually  presented  to  the  view.  The  crowd  was 
too  immense  to  bring  within  the  scope  and  comprehension  of 
ordinary  vision,  even  with  the  aid  of  a  glass. 

As  it  approached  the  Capitol,  every  arrangement  practicable 
to  secure  order  and  resist  the  pressure  of  the  crowd  was  made. 
The  vacant  space  on  the  east  front  of  the  Capitol  was  com- 
pletely cleared.  A  cordon  of  infantry,  and  a  line  of  cavalry, 
including  many  ofi&cers  of  high  rank,  as  well  as  the  many  pa- 
roled officers  mentioned  elsewhere,  formed  an  effectual  barrier 
to  the  crowd,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  police,  well  ordered  by 
Superintendent  Richards,  kept  the  space  which  had  been  cleared 
wholly  unobstructed. 

There  was  also  placed  in  front  of  the  old  portico  and  steps 
of  the  Capitol,  in  the  centre,  a  stand,  upon  which  the  coffin 
might  be  placed  when  removed  from  the  funeral  car,  the  latter 
being  too  high  to  be  reached  from  the  ground.  The  steps  and 
the  entrance  were  also  cleared  of  all  persons  save  the  members 
of  the  Capitol,  under  the  excellent  direction  of  Captain  New- 
man, who  lined  each  side  of  the  steps,  and  who,  having  had 
charge  of  the  entire  building,  had  excluded  therefrom  all  per- 
sons but  a  few  representatives  of  the  press,  who  had  duly 
authorized  passes. 

On  entering  the  Rotunda,  the  grand  paintings  and  statues, 
which  represent  the  discovery  of  America  and  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, the  settlement  of  the  country,  the  foundation  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, tlie  struggles  of  the  colonists  with  the  Indians,  the 
Revolutionary  War,  &c.,  of  the  most  important  historic  interest, 
draped  with  mourning,  struck  the  eye. 

Among  those  draped  were :  The  Discovery  of  the  Missis- 
sippi by  De  Soto,  1541  ;  The  Baptism  of  Pocahontas,  .Jamestown, 
Va.,  1613 ;  The  Landing  of  Columbus,  October,  1492 ;  Em- 
barkation of  the  Pilgrims  from  Delf  haven,  in  Holland,  July  21, 
1620 ;  The  Declaration  of  Independence,  July  4,  1776  ;  The 
Surrender  of  General  Burgoyne,  Saratoga,  N.  Y.,  October, 
1777  ;  The  Surrender  of  Cornwallis,  Yorktown,  Ya.,  October, 
1781  ;  and  General  Washington  Resigning  his  Commission  to 
Congress,  at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  December  23,  1783. 

The  Rotunda  was  otherwise  neatly  draped.  The  most  notice- 
able feature  of  the  tasteful  and  appropriate  arrangements  for 


103 

tlie  decorations  was  tlie  absence  of  all  drapery  upon  tlie  statue 
of  Washington,  save  a  black  sash,  draping  the  bust  after  the 
style  of  military  mourning. 

At  half-past  three  o'clock  Hon.  B.  B.  French,  Superintend- 
ent of  the  Public  Building:,  accompanied  by  James  0.  Clephane, 
one  of  the  civic  marshals,  entered  the  rotunda,  followed  by  the 
clergy,  and  the  physicians  who  were  in  attendance  upon  the 
late  President's  last  hours.  They  took  their  several  positions 
at  the  head  of  the  catafalque,  and  twelve  sergeants  of  the  Vet- 
eran Reserve  Corps,  each  from  a  different  company,  then  en- 
tered, bearing  the  colhn,  which  they  deposited  upon  the  cata- 
falque. Lieutenant  General  Grant,  Major  General  Hallcck, 
Assistant  Adjutant  General  Nichols,  Admirals  Parragut,  Golds- 
borough,  and  Stringham  entered  next,  and  after  them  the  new 
President  and  the  Cabinet,  followed  in  turn  by  the  remaining 
pall-bearers. 

The  pall-bearers  arranged  themselves  in  a  circle  around  the 
catafalque.  Generals  Grant  and  Halleck,  and  the  Admirals, 
the  President,  and  the  Cabinet,  took  positions  at  the  foot  of 
the  cofiBn,  some  ten  feet  from  it — the  two  Secretaries  standing 
on  the  left  side,  in  front  of  the  pall-bearers.  A  few  prominent 
gentlemen,  among  whom  were  the  Hon.  Simon  Cameron,  Gen- 
erals H:mter  and  Meigs,  also  entered  the  rotunda  and  approached 
the  coffin,  after  which  the  services  were  proceeded  with  by  Dr. 
Gurley,  as  follows  :    . 

BURIAL   SERVICE. 

It  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die.  The  dust  returns  to  the  earth  as  it 
•was,  and  the  spirit  to  God  who  gave  it.  All  flesh  is  as  grass,  and  all  the  glory  of 
man  as  the  flower  of  grass  ;  the  grass  withereth,  and  the  flower  thereof  falleth 
away.  We  know  that  we  must  die  and  go  the  house  appointed  for  all  living. 
For  what  is  our  life  ?  It  is  even  a  vapor  that  appeareth  for  a  little  time  and 
then  vanisheth  away.  Therefore  be  ye  also  ready,  for  in  such  an  hour  as  ya 
think  not  the  Son  of  Man  cometh.     Let  us  pray. 

Lord,  so  teach  us  to  number  our  days  that  we  may  apply  our  hearts  unto 
wisdom.  Wean  us  from  this  transitory  world.  Turn  away  our  eyes  from  be- 
holding vanity.  Lift  up  our  affections  to  the  things  which  are  above,  where 
Christ  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God.  There  may  our  treasure  be,  and  there 
may  our  hearts  be  also.  Wash  us  in  the  blood  of  Christ ;  clothe  us  in  the 
righteousness  of  Christ;  renew  and  sanctify  us  by  his  word  and  spirit;  lead 
us  in  the  paths  of  piety  for  his  name's  sake.     Gently,  Lord,  oh,  gently  lead  u» 


104 

through  all  the  duties,  and  changes,  and  trials  of  our  earthly  pilgrimage.  Dis- 
pose us  to  pass  the  time  of  our  sojourning  hero  in  fear,  denying  ungodliness 
and  worldly  lusts,  and  living  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  in  this  present 
world;  and  when  we  come  to  die,  may  we  be  gathered  to  our  fathers  having 
the  testimony  of  a  good  conscience  ;  in  the  communion  of  the  Christian  church; 
in  the  confidence  of  a  certain  faith ;  in  the  comfort  of  a  reasonable,  religious, 
and  holy  hope ;  in  favor  with  Thee,  our  God  ;  and  in  perfect  charity  with  the 
world ;  all  which  we  ask  through  Jesus  Christ,  our  blessed  Lord  and  Redeemer. 
Amen. 

Forasmuch  as  it  hath  pleased  Almighty  God,  in  his  wise  providence,  to  take 
out  of  this  clay  tabernacle  the  soul  that  inhabited  it,  we  commit  its  decajnng 
remains  to  their  kindred  element,  earth  to  earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust; 
looking  for  the  general  resurrection  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  at  whose 
coming  to  judge  the  world  earth  and  sea  shall  give  up  their  dead,  and  the  cor- 
ruptible bodies  of  them  that  sleep  in  Him  shall  be  fashioned  like  unto  his 
glorious  body,  according  to  the  working  whereby  he  is  able  even  to  subdue  all 
things  unto  himself.     Wherefore,  let  us  comfort  one  another  with  these  words. 

And  now  may  the  God  of  peace  that  brought  again  from  the  dead  our  Lord 
Jesus,  that  great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  through  the  blood  of  the  everlasting 
covenant,  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work  to  do  his  will,  working  in  you 
that  which  is  well  pleasing  in  his  sight,  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  Resurrection 
and  the  Life,  our  Redeemer  and  our  Hope,  to  whose  care  we  now  commit  these 
precious  remains,  and  to  whose  name  be  glory  forever  and  ever.    Amen. 

The  late  President's  body-guard  and  a  company  of  the  Vet- 
eran Reserve  Corps  then  formed  a  cordon  around  the  coffin. 
The  building  was  cleared,  by  order  of  Secretary  Stanton,  and 
the  body-guard  of  the  President  and  a  guard  of  honor  com- 
posed of  several  officers  remained  in  charge,  with  the  Capitol 
police,  under  charge  of  Captain  Newman,  to  remain  there  all 
night. 

The  guard  of  honor,  which  had  been  on  duty  all  day,  was 
relieved  by  Brigadier  General  James  A.  Ekin,  and  Major  D,  C. 
Welsh  and  Captain  Joseph  T.  Powers,  of  his  staff;  and  Briga- 
dier General  James  A.  Hall,  and  Captain  E.  H.  Nevin,  Jr., 
and  Lieutenant  Terrence  Riley,  of  his  staff.  Up  to  the  hour  of 
9,  crowds  continued  to  come  in,  and  at  that  time  the  doors 
were  closed. 

The  above  guard  of  honor  stayed  with  the  remains  during 
the  night,  and  at  6  o'clock  in  the  morning  Hon.  E.  M.  Stanton, 
Secretary  of  War  ;  Hon.  J.  P.  Usher,  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior ;  Hon.  Gideon  Welles,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  ;  Hon. 
William  Dennison,  Postmaster  General ;  Hon.  J.  J.  Speed,  At- 


105 

torney  General ;  Lieutenant  General  Grant,  and  a  portion  of 
his  staff;  Majoi"  General  Meigs,  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley,  and  several 
Senators,  the  Illinois  delegation,  and  a  number  of  officers  of 
the  army,  arrived  at  the  Capitol,  and  took  a  last  look  at  the 
face  of  the  deceased.  The  coffin  was  then  prepared  for  re- 
moval, and  twelve  orderly  sergeants  were  called  in  to  carry  it 
to  the  liearse.  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley,  before  the  removal  of  the  re- 
mains, made  the  following  prayer:,; 

Lord,  Thou  hast  been  our  dwelling  place  in  all  generations.  Before  the 
mountains  v/ere  brought  forth,  or  ever  Thou  hadst  formed  the  earth  and  the 
world,  even  from  everlasting  to  everlasting  Thou  art  God.  Thou  turnest  man 
to  destruction,  and  sayest,  return,  ye  children  of  men.  We  acknowledge  Thy 
hand  in  the  great  and  sudden  affliction  that  has  befallen  us  as  a  nation,  and  we 
pray  that  in  all  these  hours  and  scenes  of  sorrow  through  which  we  are  passing 
we  may  have  the  guidance  of  Thy  counsel  and  the  consolations  of  Thy  Spirit. 
We  commit  to  Thy  care  and  keeping  this  sleeping  dust  of  our  fallen  Chief 
Magistrate,  and  pray  Thee  to  watch  over  it  as  it  passes  from  our  view  and  is 
borne  to  its  final  resting  place  in  the  soil  of  that  State  which  was  his  abiding 
and  chosen  home.  And  grant,  we  beseech  Thee,  that,  as  the  people  in  different 
cities  and  sections  of  the  land  shall  gather  around  this  coffin  and  look  upon  the 
fading  remains  of  the  man  they  loved  so  well,  their  love  for  the  cause  in  which 
he  fell  may  kindle  into  a  brighter,  intenser  flame,  and,  while  their  tears  are 
falling,  may  they  renew  their  vows  of  eternal  fidelity  to  the  cause  of  justice, 
liberty,  and  truth.  So  may  this  great  bereavement  redound  to  Thy  glory  and 
to  the  highest  welfare  of  our  stricken  and  bleeding  country  :  and  all  we  ask  is 
in  the  name  and  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ,  our  blessed  Lord  and  Redeemer. 
Amen. 

The  remains  were  then  removed  by  a  detachment  of  the 
Quartermaster  General's  Volunteers,  detailed  by  Brigadier 
General  Rucker  ;  and  escorted  to  the  depot  by  the  companies 
of  Captains  Cromee,  Bush,  Hildebrand,  and  Dillon,  of  the  12th 
Veteran  Reserve  Corps,  the  whole  under  the  command  of  Lieu- 
tenant Colonel  Bell.  The  remains  were  followed  by  Lieutenant 
General  Grant,  General  Meigs,  General  Hardee,  the  members 
of  the  Cabinet — Messrs.  Stanton,  Welles,  McCulloch,  Denni- 
son,  and  Usher — and  Assistant  Secretary  Fields,  and  other  dis- 
tinguished personages. 

At  the  depot  was  President  Jolinson,  Hon.  W.  T.  Dole,  Gen- 
eral Barnard,  General  Rucker,  General  Townsend,  General 
Howe,  and  others. 

The  remains  of  the  late  President  and  of  his  son  wore  placed 
in  the  car  appointed  to  receive  them.     None  were  admitted  in 


106 

the  cars  except  those  who  had  tickets  authorizing  them  to  go 
with  the  remains,  Senators  and  Members  of  Congress,  military 
oflficers,  and  passengers. 

A  few  minutes  before  eight  o'clock,  Capt.  Robert  Lincoln, 
son  of  the  President,  accompanied  by  two  relatives,  arrived 
and  took  his  seat  in  the  cars. 

Messrs.  Nicolay  and  Hay,  the  late  President's  private  secre- 
taries, arrived  a  few  moments  later  and  also  took  their  places. 

Twenty-one  first  sergeants,  of  the  7th,  10th,  9th,  12th,  14th, 
18th,  and  24th  Veteran  Reserve  Corps,  accompanied  the  re- 
mains as  a  guard. 

The  train  started  at  precisely  8  o'clock,  and  a  few  moments 
before  that  time  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley,  standing  upon  the  platform, 
made  the  following  prayer  : 

O  Lord  our  God,  strengthen  us  under  tlae  pressure  of  this  great  national  sor- 
sow  as  Thou  only  canst  strengthen  the  weak,  and  comfort  us  as  Thou  only 
canst  comfort  the  sorrowing,  and  sanctify  us  as  Thou  only  canst  sanctify  a 
people  when  they  are  passing  through  the  fiery  furnace  of  trial.  May  Thy 
grace  abound  to  us  according  to  our  need,  and  in  the  end  may  the  affliction  that 
now  fills  our  hearts  with  sadness  and  our  eyes  with  tears  work  for  us  a  far 
more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory. 

And  now  may  the  God  of  Peace  that  brought  again  from  the  dead  our  Lord 
Jesus,  that  Great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  through  the  blood  of  the  everlasting 
covenant,  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work  to  do  His  will,  working  in 
you  that  which  is  well-pleasing  in  His  sight,  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  Resur- 
rection and  the  Life,  our  Redeemer  and  our  Hope,  our  fathers'  God  and  our  God, 
in  whose  care  we  now  leave  these  precious  remains,  to  whose  blessing  we  re- 
newedly  commit  our  bereaved  and  beloved  country,  and  to  whose  name  bo 
glory  forever  and  ever.    Amen. 

As  the  train  moved  slowly  from  the  depot  the  bells  of  the 
engines  tolled,  and  all  persons  standing  by,  in  token  of  respect 
and  reverence,  uncovered  their  heads,  and  stood  thus  until  the 
train  had  passed  out  of  the  depot. 

SPECIAL  ORDER  REGULATING  THE  TRANSPORTATION  OF  THE  RE- 
MAINS OP  THE  LATE  PRESIDENT,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  FROM 
WASHINGTON   CITY   TO   SPRINGFIELD,  ILLINOIS. 

War  Depaktmext, 
Washington  City,  Ajml  18,  1865. 
Ordered :  ■> 

First.  That  the  following  report,  and  the  arrangements  therein  specified,  be 
approved  and  confirmed,  and  that  the  transportation  of  the  remains  of  the  late 
Presidpnt,  Abraham  Lincoln,  from  Waslnnglon  to  Ins  former  home,  at  Spring- 


lOT 

field,  the  capital  of  Illinois,  be  conducted  ia  accordance  with  the  said  report 
and  the  arrangements  therein  specified. 

Second.  That  for  the  purpose  of  said  transportation,  the  railroads  over  which 
said  transportation  is  made  be  declared  military  roads,  subject  to  the  orders  of 
the  War  Department,  and  that  the  railroad  and  locomotives,  cars,  and  engines 
engaged  in  said  transportation  be  subject  to  the  military  control  of  Brigadier 
General  McCullum,  superintendent  of  military  railroad  transportation ;  and 
all  persons  are  required  to  conform  to  the  rules,  regulations,  orders,  and  direc- 
tions he  may  give  or  prescribe  for  the  transportation  aforesaid ;  and  all  persons 
disobeying  said  orders  shall  be  deemed  to  have  violated  the  military  orders  of 
the  War  Department,  and  shall  be  dealt  with  accordingly. 

Third.  That  no  person  shall  be  allowed  to  be  transported  upon  the  cars  con- 
stituting the  funeral  train,  save  those  who  are  specially  authorized  by  the  order 
of  the  War  Department.  The  funeral  train  will  not  exceed  nine  cars,  including 
baggage  car,  and  the  hearse  car,  which  will  proceed  over  the  whole  route 
from  Washington  to  Springfield,  Illinois. 

Fourth.  At  the  various  points  on  the  route,  where  the  remains  are  to  be  taken 
from  the  hearse  car  by  State  or  municipal  authorities,  to  receive  public  honors, 
according  to  the  aforesaid  programme,  the  said  authorities  will  make  such  ar- 
rangements as  may  be  fitting  and  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  military  commander  of  the  division,  department,  or  district,  but  the 
remains  will  continue  always  under  the  special  charge  of  the  officers  and  es- 
cort assigned  by  this  Department. 

By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War : 

E.  D.  TOWNSEND, 
Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

Wae  Department, 
Washington  City,  April  18,  1865. 
His  Excellency  Governor  Brough  and  John  W.  Garrett,  Esq.,  are  requested 
to  act  as  a  committee  of  arrangement  of  transportation  of  the  remains  of  the 
late  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  from  Washington  to  their  final  resting  place. 
They  are  authorized  to  arrange  the  time-tables  with  the  respective  railroad 
companies,  and  do  and  regulate  all  things  for  safe  and  appropriate  transporta- 
tion. They  will  cause  notice  of  this  appointment,  and  their  acceptance,  to  be 
published  for  public  information. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

Washington  City,  D.  C,  April  18,  1865. 
Hon.  E.  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War: 

SiE:  Under  your  commission  of  this  date  we  have  the  honor  to  report: 
1.  A  committee  of  the  citizens  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  appointed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  attending  to  the  removal  of  the  remains  of  the  late  President  to  their 
State,  has  furnished  us  with  the  following  route  for  the  remains  and  escort, 
being,  With  the  exception  of  two  points,  the  route  traversed  by  Mr.  Lincoln 
from  Springfield  to  Washington :     Washington  to  Baltimore,  thence  to  Harris- 


108 

fturg,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Albany,  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Columbus,  Indian- 
apolis, Chicago,  to  Springfield. 

2.  Over  this  route,  under  the  counsels  of  the  committee,  we  have  prepared 
the  following  time  card,  in  all  cases  for  special  trains : 

TIME  CARD. 

Leave  Washington,  8  A.  M.,  Friday,  21st  inst.  Arrive  at  Baltimore,  10  A. 
M.,  same  day. 

Leave  Baltimore,  3  P.  AL,  Friday,  21st.  Arrive  at  Harrisburg,  8.20  P.  M., 
eame  day. 

Leave  Harrisburg,  12  M.,  Saturday,  22d.  Arrive  at  Philadelphia,  6.30  P. 
M.,  same  day. 

Leave  Philadelphia,  4  A.  M.,  Monday,  24th.  Arrive  at  New  York,  10  A. 
M.,  same  day. 

Leave  New  York,  4  P.  M.,  Tuesday,  25th.  Arrive  at  Albany,  11  P.  M.,  same 
day. 

Leave  Albany,  4  P.  M.,  Wednesday,  26th.  Arrive  at  Buffalo,  7  A.  M., 
Thursday,  27th. 

Leave  Buffalo,  10.10  P.  M.,  Thursday  27th.  Arrive  at  Cleveland,  7  A.  M., 
Friday,  28th. 

Leave  Cleveland,  12  midnight,  Friday,  28th.  Arrive  at  Columbus,  7.30  A. 
M.,  Saturday,  29th. 

Leave  Columbus,  8  P.  M.,  Saturday,  29th.  Arrive  at  Indianapolis,  7  A.  M., 
Sunday, 30th. 

Leave  Indianapolis,  12  midnight,  Sunday,  30th.  Arrive  at  Chicago,  11  A, 
M.,  Monday,  May  1. 

Leave  Chicago,  9.30  P.  M.,  Tuesday,  May  2.  Arrive  at  Springfield,  8  A.  M., 
Wednesday,  May  3. 

The  route  from  Columbus  to  Indianapolis  is  via  the  Columbus  and  Indian- 
apolis Central  railway,  and  from  Indianapolis  to  Chicago,  via  Lafayette  and 
Michigan  City. 

3.  As  to  the  running  of  these  special  trains,  which,  in  order  to  guard  as  far 
as  practicable  against  accidents  and  detentions,  we  have  reduced  to  about 
twenty  miles  per  hour,  we  suggest  the  following  regulations  : 

1.  That  time  of  departure  and  arrival  be  observed  as  closely  as  possible. 

2.  That  material  detentions  at  way  points  be  guarded  against  as  much  as 
practicable,  so  as  not  to  increase  the  speed  of  trains. 

3.  That  a  pilot  engine  be  kept  ten  minutes  in  advance  of  the  train. 

4.  That  the  special  train,  in  all  cases,  have  the  right  of  road ;  and  that  all 
other  trains  be  kept  out  of  its  way. 

5.  That  the  several  railroad  companies  provide  a  sufficient  number  of  couches 
for  the  comfortable  accommodation  of  the  escort,  and  a  special  car  for  the  re- 
mains ;  and  that  all  these,  together  with  the  engines,  be  appropriately  draped 
in  mourning. 

6.  That  where  the  running  time  of  any  train  extends  beyond,  or  commences 
at  midnight,  not  less  than  two  sleeping  cars  be  added,  and  a  greater  number  if 
the  road  can  command  them,  sufiicient  for  the  accommodation  of  the  escort. 

7.  That  two  officers  of  the  United  States  Military  Railway  service  be  detailed 
by  you,  and  despatched  at  once  over  the  route,  to  confer  with  the  several  rail- 


109 

way  oflicers,  and  make  all  necessary  preparations  for  carrying  out  these 
arrangements  promptly  and  satisfactorily. 

8.  That  this  programme  and  these  regulations,  if  approved,  be  confirmed 
by  an  order  of  the  War  Department. 
EespectfuUy  submitted. 

JOHN  BROUGH, 
JOHN  W.  GARRETT, 

Committee. 

THE  GUARD   OF  HONOR. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  gentlemen  and  those  constitut- 
ing the  guard  of  honor  which  accompanied  the  remains  of  the 
lamented  President : 

Judge  David  Davis,  Judge  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court;  N.  "W.  Ed- 
wards, General  J.  B.  S.  Todd,  Charles  Alexander  Smith. 

Guard  of  honor :  Brigadier  General  E.  D.  Townsend,  Brevet  Brigadier  General 
James  A.  Ekin,  Brigadier  General  A.  D.  Eaton,  Brevet  Major  General  J.  G. 
Barnard,  Brigadier  General  G.  D.  Ramsey,  Brigadier  General  A.  P.  Howe, 
Brigadier  General  D.  C.  McCuUum,  Major  General  David  Hunter,  Brigadier 
General  J.  C.  Caldwell,  Rear  Admiral  C.  H.  Davis,  United  States  Navy  ;  Cap- 
tain William  R.  Taylor,  United  States  Navy;  Major  T.  H.  Field,  United  States 
Marine  Corps. 

The  following  gentlemen  accompanied  the  train  in  an  official 
capacity : 

Captain  Charles  Penrose,  Quartermaster  and  Commissary  of  Subsistence  for 
the  entire  party ;  Dr.  Charles  B.  Brown,  Embalmer ;  Frank  T.  Sands,  Under- 
taker. 

The  following  members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives were  specially  invited  to  accompany  the  remains  to 
Springfield : 

Messrs.  Pike  of  Maine,  Rollins  of  New  Hampshire,  Baxter  of  Vermont, 
Hooper  of  Massachusetts,  Dexter  of  Connecticut,  Anthony  of  Rhode  Island, 
Harris  of  New  York,  Cowan  of  Pennsylvania,  Schenck  of  Ohio,  Smith  of  Ken- 
tucky, Julian  of  Indiana,  Ramsay  of  Minnesota,  T.  W.  Terry  of  Michigan, 
Harlan  of  Iowa,  Yates  of  Illinois,  Washburne  of  Illinois,  Farnsworth  of  Il- 
linois, Arnold  of  Illinois,  Shannon  of  California,  Williams  of  Oregon,  Clarke 
of  Kansas,  Whaley  of  West  Virginia,  Nye  of  Nevada,  Hitchcock  of  Nebraska, 
Bradford  of  Colorado,  Wallace  of  Idaho,  Newell  of  New  Jersey,  Phelps  of 
Maryland;  George  T.  Brown,  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the  Senate;  and  N.  G.  Ord- 
way,  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 


110 

The  following  are  the  names  of  the  delegates  from  Illinois 
appointed  to  accompany,  the  remains  to  their  last  resting  place : 

Governor  Richard  J.  Oglesby;  General  Isham  N.  Hagnie,  Adjutant  General 
Illinois;  Colonel  James  H.  Bowen,  A.  D.  C;  Colonel  M.  H.  Hanna,  A.  D.  C; 
Colonel  D.  B.  James,  A.  D.  C;  Major  S.  Waite,  A.  D.  C;  Colonel  D.  L.  Phillips, 
United  States  ^Marshal  of  the  Southern  District  of  Illinois,  A.  D.  C. ;  Hon. 
Jesse  K.  Dubois,  Hon  J.  T.  Stuart,  Colonel  John  Williams,  Dr.  S.  H.  !Melvin, 
Hon.  S.  M.  Cullom,  General  John  A.  McClernand,  Hon.  Lyman  Trumbull,  Hon. 
Thomas  A.  Haine,  Hon.  John  Wentworth,  Hon.  S.  S.  Hayes,  Colonel  E,.  M. 
Hough,  Hon.  S.  W.  Fuller,  Captain  J.  B.  Turner,  Hon.  J.  Lawson,  Hon.  C.  L. 
Woodman,  Hon.  G.  W.  Gage,  G.  H.  Boberts,  Esq.,  J.  Connisky,  Esq.,  Hon.  L. 
Talcott,  Hon.  J.  S.  Fredenburg,  Hon.  Thomas  J.  Dennis,  Lieutenant  Governor 
William  Bross,  and  Hon.  Francis  E.  Sherman,  Mayor  of  Chicago. 

Governors  of  States:  Governor  Morton  of  Indiana,  Governor  Brough  of  Ohio, 
Governor  Stone  of  Iowa,  together  with  their  aides. 

Mayor  Wallach,  of  Washington ;  Mr.  Garnett,  President  of  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Pwailroad;  Colonel  Lamon,  United  States  Marshal;  Mr.  S.  A.  Gobright,  of 
the  Associated  Press ;  U.  H.  Painter,  of  the  Philadelphia  Inquirer;  Mr.  Page, 
of  the  New  York  Tribune;  and  Dr.  Adonis,  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  were  also 
of  the  company. 

The  Secretary  of  War  sent  official  notes  to  those  who  were 
appointed  guards  of  honor  to  accompany  the  remains,  and  to 
distinguished  civilians,  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy  : 

[Free  transportation.] 

War  Depaetment,  Adjutant  General's  Office, 

Washington,  April  22,  1865. 
Brevet  Brigadier  General  James  A.  Ekin  is  invited  to  accompany  the  re- 
mains of  the  late  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  from  the  city  of  Washington 
to  Springfield,  Illinois. 

By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War : 

W.  A.  NICHOLS, 
Assistant  Adjutant  General. 


OFFICIAL  ORDERS  CONCERNING  THE  PRESI- 
DENT'S DEATH. 


Wae  Department, 
Adjutant  General's  Office,  April  16, 1865. 
General  Orders  No.  66. 

The  following  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War  announces  to  the  armies  of  the 
United  States  the  untimely  and  lamentable  death  of  the  illustrious  Abraham 
Lincoln,  late  President  of  the  United  States : 

War  Department, 
Washington  City,  April  16,  1865. 

The  distressing  duty  has  devolved  upon  the  Secretary  of  War  to  announce 
to  the  armies  of  the  United  States  that,  at  22  minutes  after  seven  o'clock,  on 
the  morning  of  Saturday,  the  15th  day  of  April,  1865,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
President  of  the  United  States,  died  of  a  mortal  wound  inflicted  upon  him  by 
an  assassin. 

The  armies  of  the  United  States  will  share  with  their  fellow-citizens  the  feel- 
ing of  grief  and  horror  inspired  by  this  most  atrocious  murder  of  their  great 
and  beloved  President  and  Commander-in-Chief,  and  with  profound  sorrow 
will  mourn  his  death  as  a  national  calamity. 

The  headquarters  of  every  department,  post,  station,  fort,  and  arsenal  will 
be  draped  in  mourning  for  thirty  days,  and  appropriate  funeral  honors  will  be 
paid  by  every  army,  and  in  every  department,  and  at  every  military  post,  and 
at  the  Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  to  the  memory  of  the  late  illustrious 
Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  its  armies. 

Lieutenant  General  Grant  will  give  the  necessary  instructions  for  carrying 
this  order  into  effect. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

On  the  day  after  the  receipt  of  this  order  at  the  headquarters  of  every  mili- 
tary division,  department,  army  post,  station,  fort,  and  arsenal,  and  at  the  Mil- 
itary Academy  at  West  Point,  the  troops  and  Cadets  will  be  paraded  at  10 

111 


112 

A.  M.,  and  the  order  read  to  them,  after  which  all  labors  and  operations  for  the 
day  will  cease  and  be  suspended,  as  far  as  practicable  in  a  state  of  war. 
The  national  flag  will  be  displayed  at  half-staff. 

At  dawn  of  day  thirteen  guns  will  be  fired,  and  afterwards  at  intervals  of 
thirty  minutes  between  the  rising  and  setting  sun  a  single  gun,  and  at  the 
close  of  day  a  national  salute  of  thirty-six  guns. 

The  officers  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States  will  wear  the  badge  of  mourn- 
ing on  the  left  arm  and  on  their  swords,  and  the  colors  of  their  commands  and 
regiments  will  be  put  in  mourning  for  the  period  of  six  months. 
By  command  of  Lieutenant  General  Grant: 

W.  A.  NICHOLS, 
Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

Navt  Department, 

Washington,  April  15, 1865. 

The  Department  announces,  with  profound  sorrow,  to  the  officers  and  men  of 
the  Navy  and  Marine  Corps,  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  late  President 
of  the  United  States.-  Stricken  down  by  the  hands  of  an  assassin,  on  the  even- 
ing of  the  14th  instant,  when  surrounded  by  his  family  and  friends,  he 
lingered  a  few  hours  after  receiving  the  fatal  bullet,  and  died  at  seven  o'clock 
and  twenty-two  minutes  this  morning.  A  grateful  people  had  given  their  will- 
ing confidence  to  the  patriot  and  statesman,  under  whose  wise  and  successful 
administration  the  nation  was  just  emerging  from  the  civil  strife  which  for  four 
years  has  afflicted  the  land,  when  this  terrible  calamity  fell  upon  the  country. 
To  him  our  gratitude  was  justly  due,  for  to  him,  under  God,  more  than  to  any 
other  person,  are  we  indebted  for  the  successful  vindication  of  the  integrity  of 
the  Union  and  the  maintenance  of  the  power  of  the  Republic. 

The  officers  of  the  Navy  and  of  the  Marine  Corps  will,  as  a  manifestation 
of  their  respect  for  the  exalted  character,  eminent  position,  and  inestimable 
public  services  of  the  late  President,  and  as  an  indication  of  their  sense  of  the 
calamity  which  the  country  has  sustained,  wear  the  usual  badge  of  mourning 
for  six  months.  The  Department  further  directs  that  upon  the  day  following 
the  receipt  of  this  order,  the  commandants  of  squadrons,  navy  yards,  and  sta- 
tions will  direct  the  ensign  of  every  vessel  in  their  several  commands  to  be 
hoisted  at  half-mast,  and  a  gun  to  be  fired  every  half  hour,  beginning  at  sun- 
rise and  ending  at  sunset.  The  flags  of  the  several  navy  yards  and  Marine 
barracks  will  also  be  hoisted  at  half-mast. 

GIDEON  WELLES, 
Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

Depaetment  of  State, 

Washington,  April  17, 1865. 

The  undersigned  is  directed  to  announce  that  the  funeral  ceremonies  of  the 
late  lamented  Chief  Magistrate  will  take  place  at  the  Executive  Mansion,  in 
this  city,  at  12  o'clock  M.,  on  Wednesday,  the  19th  instant. 

The  various  religious  denominations  throughout  the  country  are  invited  to 


113 

meet  in  their  respective  places  of  worship  at  that  hour,  for  the  purpose  of  sol- 
emnizing the  occasion  with  appropriate  ceremonies. 

W.  HUNTER, 

Acting  Secretary  of  State. 

Navt  Department,  April  17,  1865. 
By  order  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  the  Navy  Department  will 
be  closed  on  Wednesday  next,  the  day  of  the  funeral  solemnities  of  the  lata 
President  of  the  United  States. 

Labor  will  also  be  suspended  on  that  day  at  each  of  the  navy  yards  and 
navy  stations,  and  upon  all  the  vessels  of  the  United  States. 

The  flags  of  all  vessels,  and  at  all  navy  yards  and  stations,  and  marine  bar- 
racks, will  be  kept  at  half-mast  during  the  day,  and  at  12  o'clock,  meridian, 
twenty-one  minute  guns  will  be  fired  by  the  senior  officer  of  each  squadron 
and  the  commandants  of  each  of  the  navy  yards  and  stations. 

GIDEON  WELLES, 
Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

Navy  Department,  April  17,  1865, 

Vice  Admiral  D.  G.  Farragut  and  Rear  Admiral  William  B.  Shubrick  have 

been  designated  to  make  the  necessary  arrangements  on  the  part  of  the  Navy 

and  Marine  corps,  for  attending,  on  Wednesday  next,  the  funeral  of  the  late 

President  of  the  United  States. 

GIDEON  V/ELLES, 

Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

Navy  Department, 

Washington,  April  17,  1865. 
Officers  of  the  Navy  and  Marine  corps  will  assemble  at  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment, in  uniform,  at  10  o'clock  A.  M.,  on  Wednesday  next,  for  the  purpose  of 

attending  the  funeral  of  the  late  President. 

GIDEON  WELLES, 
Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

Treasury  Department,  April  17, 1865. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  with  profound  sorrow,  announces  to  ihe 
revenue  marine  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  late  President  of  the  United 
States.  He  died  in  this  city  on  the  morning  of  the  15th  instant,  at  twenty-two 
minutes  past  seven  o'clock. 

The  officers  of  the  revenue  marine  will,  as  a  manifestation  of  their  respect 
for  the  exalted  character  and  eminent  public  services  of  the  illustrious  dead, 
and  of  their  sense  of  the  calamity  the  country  has  sustained  by  this  afflicting 
dispensation  of  Providence,  wear  crape  on  the  left  arm  and  upon  the  hilt  of  the 
sword  for  six  months. 

It  is  further  directed  that  funeral  honors  be  paid  on  board  all  revenue  vessels 
in  commission,  by  firing  thirty -six  minute  guns,  commencing  at  meridian  on  the 
day  after  the  receipt  of  this  order,  and  by  wearing  their  flags  at  half-mast. 

HUGH  McCULLOCH, 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 


114 

Post  Office  Department, 

"Washington,  April  17,  1865. 
To  Deputy  Postmasters : 

Business  in  all  the  post  offices  of  the  United  States  will  be  suspended  and  the 
offices  closed  from  11  A.  M.  to  3  P.  M.  on  Wednesday,  the  19th  instant,  during 
the  funeral  solemnities  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  late  President  of  the  United  States. 

W.  DENNISON, 

Postmaster  General. 

Depaetxient  of  State, 

Washington,  April  17,  1865. 
It  is  hereby  ordered  that  in  honor  to  the  memory  of  our  late  illustrious  Chief 
Magistrate,  all  officers  and  others  subject  to  the  orders  of  the  Secretary  of  State 
wear  crape  upon  the  left  arm  for  the  period  of  six  months. 

W.  HUNTER, 
Acting  Secretary  of  State. 

Department  of  the  Interior, 
Washington,  April  18,  1865. 
It  is  hereby  ordered  that,  in  honor  of  the  memory  of  the  late  Chief  Magis- 
trate of  the  nation,  the  officers  and  employees  of  this  Department  wear  crape 
on  the  left  arm  for  the  period  of  six  months. 

I.  P.  USHER, 
Secretary  of  the  Interior. 

GENERAL  MEADE's  ORDERS. 

Headquarters  Army  of  the  Potomac, 

Apnl  16,  1865. 
General  Order  No.  15. 

The  Major  General  commanding  announces  to  the  army  that  official  intelli- 
gence has  been  received  of  the  death,  by  assassination,  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States. 

The  President  died  at  twenty-two  minutes  past  seven  on  the  morning  of  the 
the  15th  inst. 

To  this  army,  this  announcement  will  be  received  with  profound  sorrow,  and 
deep  horror  and  indignation.  The  President,  by  the  active  interest  he  ever 
took  in  the  welfare  of  this  army,  and  by  his  presence  in  frequent  visits,  espe- 
cially during  the  recent  operations,  had  particularly  endeared  himself  to  both 
officers  and  soldiers,  all  of  whom  regarded  him  as  a  generous  friend.  An 
honest  man,  a  noble  patriot,  and  sagacious  statesman  has  fallen !  No  greater 
loss  at  this  particular  moment  could  have  befallen  our  country.  Whilst  we 
bow  with  submission  to  the  unfathomable  and  inscrutable  decrees  of  Divine 
Providence,  let  us  earnestly  pray  that  God  in  His  mercy  wiU  so  order  that  this 
terrible  calamity  shall  not  interfere  with  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  our 
Ijgloved  country. 

GEO.  G.  MEADE, 
Major  General  Commanding. 


115 

Headquartees  Abmt  of  the  Potomac, 

April  17. 
General  Order  No.  16. 

In  obedience  to  General  Order  No.  69,  current  series,  from  the  "War  Depart- 
ment, the  flags  at  all  the  camps  and  stations  in  this  army  will  be  kept  at  half- 
mast  during  Wednesday  next,  the  day  appointed  for  the  funeral  of  the  late 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  all  labor  will  be  suspended  for  the  day 
throughout  the  limits  of  this  command.  The  commanding  officers  of  the  vari- 
ous corps  are  charged  with  the  execution  of  this  order  at  the  camps  and  de- 
tached stations  under  their  respective  orders.  Twenty-one  minute  guns  will 
be  fired  under  the  direction  of  the  Chief  of  Artillery  at  twelve  o'clock  M.,  on 
the  day  mentioned. 

By  command  of  Major  General  Meade: 

G.  D.  RUGGLES,  A.  A.  O. 

GENERAL    SHERMAN's    ORDER    ANNOUNCING    THE    PRESIDENT'S 

DEATH. 

Headqtjaetees  Military  Div.  of  the  Mississippi, 
In  the  Field,  Raleigh,  April  17,  1865. 
I^ecial  Field  Order  No.  50. 

The  General  commanding  announces  with  pain  and  sorrow  that  on  the  even- 
ing of  the  14th  inst.,  at  the  theatre,  in  Washington  city,  his  Excellency  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Lincoln,  was  assassinated  by  one  who 
uttered  the  State  motto  of  Virginia.  At  the  same  time  the  Secretary  of  State, 
Mr.  Seward,  while  suffering  from  a  broken  arm,  was  also  stabbed  by  another 
murderer,  in  his  own  house,  but  still  survives,  and  his  son  was  wounded,  sup- 
posed fatally. 

It  is  believed  by  persons  capable  of  judging,  that  other  high  officers  were 
designed  to  share  the  same  fate.  Thus  it  seems  that  our  enemy,  despairing  of 
meeting  us  in  manly  warfare,  begins  to  resort  to  the  assassin's  tools.  Your 
General  does  not  wish  you  to  infer  that  this  is  universal,  for  he  knows  that  the 
great  mass  of  the  Confederate  army  would  scorn  to  sanction  such  acts;  but  he 
believes  it  the  legitimate  consequence  of  rebellion  against  rightful  authority. 
We  have  met  every  phase  which  this  war  has  assumed,  and  must  now  be  pre- 
pared for  it  in  its  last  and  worst  shape,  that  of  assassins  and  guerillas;  but 
woe  unto  the  people  who  seek  to  expend  their  wild  passions  in  such  a  manner, 
for  there  is  but  one  dread  result. 

By  order  of  Major  General  W.  T.  Sherman : 

L.  M.  DAYTON, 
Major  and  Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

A  letter  from  General  Sherman's  army  describes  the  feeling 
as  follows : 

Officers  met  and  passed  in  silence,  scarcely  daring  to  break  the  dreadful  se- 
cret to  each  other.  Universal  gloom  settled  like  a  pall  over  the  place.  Sad 
faces  were  everywhere  ;    all  hearts  were  heavy ;    all  }nind3  appalled  by  the 


116 

dreadful  news  of  this  triple  murder.  At  Gen.  Schofield's  headquarters,  I  have 
seen  officers  and  men  in  tears,  as  if  mourning  for  the  loss  of  a  father  or  beloved 
friend.  A  sorrow  like  that  which  fell  upon  Egypt,  when  the  angel  of  death 
smote  the  first-born,  broods  over  all  minds.  Others,  with  clenched  fists  and 
firm-set  teeth,  were  calling  for  vengeance  upon  the  whole  race  of  traitors,  from 
Jeff.  Davis  down.  A  people  who  could  conceive  of  such  transcendent  wicked- 
ness, and  every  one  who  can  apologize  for  or  excuse  it,  they  say  ought  to  be 
blotted  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

The  whole  current  of  feeling  in  the  army  has  been  changed  by  this  crowning 
act  of  villainy — this  final,  fiendish  stab  at  the  nation's  life. 

The  officers  and  soldiers  everywhere  speak  in  terms  of  the  highest  admiration 
of  the  great  and  good  man  who  has  fallen.  He  seems  to  have  been  spared  by 
a  kind  Providence  to  witness  the  fruit  of  his  long  and  wearisome  labors  for  the 
salvation  of  his  country,  and  then  has  mingled  his  blood  with  the  thousands 
who  have  fallen  in  the  struggle,  in  a  manner  to  show  to  the  world,  as  no  other 
event  could  teach,  the  fiendish  spirit  which  has  animated  these  enemies  of  lib- 
erty, of  the  country,  and  of  mankind.  I  hear  nothing  but  words  of  the  most 
affectionate  eulogy  of  the  departed  President,  and  earnest  prayers  ascend  from 
many  thousand  hearts  that  God  should  disappoint  the  assassins,  and  yet  spare 
the  precious  lives  of  Mr."  Seward  and  his  son. 

OBSEQUIES   IN  THE   ARMY. 

General  Meade^s  Headquarters. 

Headquaetees  Aemy  of  the  Potomac, 

April  17,  1865. 
The  announcement  of  the  assassination  of  ]Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Seward  and 
his  son  was  received  throughout  this  army  with  the  utmost  sorrow.  Every  man 
seemed  to  think  it  the  greatest  calamity  that  could  have  possibly  happened  just 
at  this  time.  Should  the  assassins  be  found,  and  turned  over  to  the  army  to  be 
dealt  with,  their  punishment  would  be  swift  and  sure,  and  such  as  to  strike 
terror  into  the  heart  of  every  sympathizer  with  treason  in  the  United  States. 
The  citizens  living  in  the  country  here  express  their  deep  regret  at  the  occur- 
rence, and  think  it  the  worst  thing  that  could  possibly  have  happened  for  the 
Southern  people  just  at  this  juncture. 

The  Sixth  Corps. 

Headqttartees  Sixth  Aemt  Coeps, 

BtrRKESviLLE  Junction,  April  19,  1865. 
The  death  of  the  President  still  monopolizes  a  large  share  of  the  thought  of 
this  army.  It  is  the  one  all-absorbing  subject  of  conversation.  The  man  had 
so  thoroughly  endeared  himself  to  both  officers  and  men,  and  all  seem  to  feel 
that  they  have  lost  a  dear  personal  friend.  Every  day  I  hear  fresh  instances 
of  his  goodness  related — incidents  which  go  to  prove  that  amidst  the  weighty 
cares  of  his  high  station,  he  always  found  time  to  attend  to  the  numerous  letters 
sent  him  by  the  wives,  mothers,  and  sisters  of  soldiers,  asking  him  to  inform 


117 

them  what  had  become  of  their  husband,  son,  or  brother,  wlio  enlisted  months 
or  years  ago  as  a  private  soldier  in  the  great  army  of  the  Union,  and  of  whom 
they  had  received  no  tidings  since  his  regiment  marched  off  down  South. 
Scores  of  these  documents,  bearing  the  President's  well-known  autograph,  have 
found  their  way  to  the  headquarters  of  the  company  in  which  the  person  so 
anxiously  inquired  for  had  enlisted.  Sometimes  the  glad  tidings,  "  He  is  alive 
and  well,"  went  North;  and  at  others  the  company  commander  penned  the 
sorrowful  words,  "  He  was  killed  in  battle."  This  thoughtfulness  and  true 
goodness  of  heart  had  made  the  President  peculiarly  beloved  by  the  soldiers, 
and  words  are  but  feeble  exponents  of  the  sorrow  and  rage  excited  among  them 
by  the  news  of  his  tragical  death. 

To-day  being  the  time  for  Mr.  Lincoln's  funeral  to  take  place.  General  Meade 
issued  a  general  order  in  relation  to  the  matter,  and  by  the  time  this  despatch 
will  leave  the  minute  guns  will  be  booming  out  the  soldiers'  requiem  for  their 
late  and  beloved  President.  The  flags  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  will  be 
floating  at  half-mast,  and  through  the  pine  woods,  in  whose  depths  the  troops 
are  encamped,  solemn  dirges  will  sound  their  mournful  refrains. 

General  Hancock's  Appeal  to  the  Colored  People. 

Headq,uartees  Middle  Military  Division, 

Washington,  D.  C,  April  24,  1865. 

To  the  Colored  People  of  the  District  of  Columbia  and  of  Maryland,  of  Alex- 
andria and  the  Border  Counties  of  Virginia : 

Your  President  has  been  murdered!  He  has  fallen  by  the  assassin,  and  with- 
out a  moment's  warning,  simply  and  solely  because  he  was  your  friend  and  the 
friend  of  our  countrJ^  Had  he  been  unfaithful  to  you  and  to  the  great  cause 
of  human  freedom  he  might  have  lived.  The  pistol  from  which  he  met  his 
death,  though  held  by  Booth,  was  fired  by  the  hands  of  treason  and  slavery. 
Think  of  this,  and  remember  how  long  and  how  anxiously  this  good  man 
labored  to  break  your  chains  and  to  make  you  happy.  I  now  appeal  to  you, 
by  every  consideration  which  can  move  loyal  and  grateful  hearts,  to  aid  in  dis- 
covering and  arresting  his  murderer.  Concealed  by  traitors,  he  is  believed  to  be 
lurking  somewhere  within  the  limits  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  or  the  States 
of  Maryland  or  Virginia.  Go  forth,  then,  and  watch,  and  listen,  and  inquire, 
and  search,  and  pray,  by  day  and  by  night,  until  you  shall  have  succeeded  ia 
dragging  this  monstrous  and  bloody  criminal  from  his  hiding  place.  You  can 
do  much  ;  even  the  humblest  and  feeblest  among  you,  by  patience  and  unwearied 
vigilance,  may  render  the  most  important  assistance.  Large  rewards  have  beea 
offered  by  the  government,  and  by  municipal  authorities,  and  they  will  be  paid 
for  the  apprehension  of  the  murderer,  or  for  any  information  which  will  aid  in 
his  arrest.  But  I  feel  that  you  need  no  such  stimulus  as  this.  You  will  hunt 
down  this  cowardly  assassin  of  your  best  friend  as  you  would  the  murderer  of 
your  own  fatlier.  Do  this,  and  God,  whose  servant  has  been  slain,  and  the 
country  which  has  given  you  freedom,  will  bless  you  for  this  noble  act  of  duty. 
All  information  which  will  had  to  the  arrest  of  Booth,  or  Suratt,  or  Herold, 
Bhould  be  communicated  to  these  headquarters,  or  to  General  Holt,  Judge  Ad- 


118 

vocate  General,  at  "Washington,  or,  if  immediate  action  is  required,  then  to  the 
nearest  military  authorities. 

All  oflicera  and  soldiers  iu  this  command,  and  all  loyal  people,  are  enjoined 
to  increased  vigilance. 

W.  S.  HANCOCK, 
Major  General  U.  S.  Voluiitcers,  Corrudg  Middle  Military  Division. 

THE    GENERAL    COURT-MARTIAL. 

The  General  Court-Martial  sitting  at  183  G  street,  of  which 
Brigadier  General  Briggs  is  President,  in  view  of  the  national 
bereavement,  adjourned,  and  draped  the  court  building,  and 
each  member  assumed  the  usual  badge  of  mourning. 

The  Judge  Advocate,  Major  Burnham,  U.  S.  A.,  made  the 
following  appropriate  and  feeling  remarks  preparatory  to  the 
motion  to  adjourn  : 

Mr.  President  :  It  becomes  my  painful  duty  to  announce  to  the  court  the 
death  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  this  nation.  While  yet  in  the  fullness  of  life 
and  strength,  and  after  having  attained  the  almost  complete  accomplishment  of 
the  great  purposes  of  his  administration,  his  invaluable  life  has  been  brought, 
to  an  untimely  end — stricken  down  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin.  As  citizens, 
aa  soldiers,  we  mourn  the  death  of  our  President,  of  our  Commander-in-Chief, 
feeling  that  to  the  cause  which  he,  more  than  any  other  man,  represented,  we 
had  devoted  our  best  energies  through  years  of  perilous  strife ;  and  that  in  his 
fall,  this  great  nation,  of  which  he,  though  but  one  man,  formed  so  important  a 
part,  has  met  with  a  calamity,  the  extent  of  which,  in  this  first  hour  of  blind- 
ing sorrow,  no  eye  can  adequately  measure,  no  heart  can  fully  appreciate. 

For  the  four  years  now  past,  death  in  various  forms — murderous  assault  and 
midnight  assassination — has  threatened  a  life  so  precious  to  the  interests  of 
mankind ;  but  still  a  watchful  Providence  guarded  his  footsteps  and  spared 
him  to  the  nation. 

His  re-election,  triumphantly  sustaining  him  and  the  great  principles  of  a 
free  and  permanent  republican  government,  which  he  represented,  had  taken 
place  without  disturbance ;  he  had  been  again  inaugurated  with  the  peaceful 
simplicity  characteristic  of  our  institutions  ;  he  had  once  more  proceeded  to  the 
discharge  of  the  high  duties  devolving  upon  him  in  his  great  office  ;  and  now, 
just  as  our  victorious  arms  have  been  crowned  with  triumph,  before  the  rejoic- 
ings of  the  nation  have  died  into  silence,  with  its  detonating  ordnance  still 
ringing  in  our  ears,  its  blazing  bonfires,  the  splendor  of  its  illuminations,  the 
waving  of  its  myriad  banners  still  dazzling  our  eyes,  and  welcoming  to  the  na- 
tional heart  the  tidings  that  peace  again  hovered  over  us,  and  that  the  land 
which  had  been  drenched  in  fraternal  blood  should  again  return  to  the  arts  of 
peace — iu  this  hour  of  triumph,  in  the  moment  of  exultant  joy,  the  hand  of 
death  has  stricken  our  leader. 


119 

Aa  a  nation  we  can  do  naught  but  mourn ;  our  hearts  must  bow  in  reverence 
before  God,  and  penitence  for  the  sins,  whether  our  own  or  those  of  our  fellows, 
which  have  brought  upon  us  this  untimely  and  dreadful  affliction.  The  great 
cause  of  philanthropy  throughout  the  world  has  lost  its  most  powerful,  most 
persistent,  and  most  practical  champion ;  humanity  its  ablest  advocate,  its  most 
untiring  friend.  A  great  man  has  passed  from  earth  ;  his  life  has  been  given 
back  to  Him  from  whom  he  received  it ;  and  the  universal  voice  of  this  nation 
in  its  sorrow,  reviewing  that  life  and  its  labors,  says,  "  Well  done." 

All  words  fail  me  to  express  or  even  indicate  one  thousandth  part  of  the 
emotions  which  rise  in  our  breasts  and  struggle  for  utterance  at  this  time.  In 
Buch  an  hour  we  feel  the  poverty  of  language  to  body  forth  the  fulness  of  our 
hearts. 

But  though  conscious  that  a  great  crime  has  been  perpetrated ;  that  treason 
has  culminated  in  its  most  fearful  and  most  horrid  act,  adding  parricide  to  its 
black  catalogue  of  crimes,  we  cannot  but  feel,  while  mourning  our  beloved 
Chief  Magistrate,  that  still  the  Government,  over  which  he  so  ably  presided, 
stands  as  firmly  as  ever  ;  that  the  principles  which  he  so  earnestly  sustained 
still  remain  for  our  guidance,  still  live  in  our  hearts ;  and  while  upon  his  bier 
we  drop  tears  of  sorrow  over  his  untimely  fate,  we  will  not  forget  that  we  yet 
owe  a  duty  to  our  country,  in  discharging  which  we  shall  honor  the  memory 
and  fulfil  the  purposes  of  the  dead,  and  preserve  the  lives  and  perpetuate  the 
liberties  of  the  living,  restoring  to  this  distracted  land  that  unity,  peace,  and 
good-will  which  he  so  ably  and  earnestly  sought,  and  for  which  he  laid  down 
his  life. 

ACTION   OF  THE   DIPLOMATIC    BODY. 

The  various  members  of  the  Diplomatic  body  were  presented 
to  the  Acting  Secretary  of  State.  As  the  Dean  of  that  body, 
Baron  Yon  Gerolt,  the  Russian  Minister,  addressed  the  Presi- 
dent as  follows : 

Me.  Peesident  :  The  representatives  of  foreign  nations  have  assembled  here 
to  express  to  your  Excellency  their  feelings  at  the  deplorable  events  of  which 
they  have  been  witnesses — to  say  how  sincerely  they  share  the  national  mourn- 
ing for  the  cruel  fate  of  the  late  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  how  deeply 
they  sympathize  with  the  Government  and  people  of  the  United  States  in  their 
great  affliction.  With  equal  sincerity  we  tender  to  you,  Mr.  President,  our 
best  wishes  for  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  United  States,  and  for  your 
personal  health  and  happiness.  May  we  be  allowed,  also,  Mr.  President,  to 
give  utterance  on  this  occasion  to  our  sincerest  hopes  for  an  early  re-establish- 
ment of  peace  in  this  great  country,  and  for  the  maintenance  of  the  friendly 
relations  between  the  Government  of  the  United  States  and  the  Governments 
which  we  represent. 


120 


SWISS  DELEGATION. 

A  delegation,  composed  of  the  Swiss  residents  of  Washing- 
ton, Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  and  New  York,  waited  on  Presi- 
dent Johnson,  to  express  their  gratification  at  our  recent  victo- 
ries and  sympathy  in  the  late  national  calamity. 

The  Swiss  Consul  General,  Mr.  Hitz,  resident  of  Washing- 
ton, after  an  introduction  to  the  President  by  the  Acting  Secre- 
tary of  State,  Mr.  Hunter,  expressed  the  sentiments  of  the 
delegation  in  the  following  address  : 

Me.  Peesident  :  Your  Excellency,  no  doubt,  will  readily  appreciate  wty  it 
is  that  the  citizens  of  Switzerland,  residing  in  the  United  States,  were  unable 
to  remain  passive  spectators  of  the  important  events  and  tragic  occurrences 
they  have  witnessed  transpire  during  the  past  month. 

They  now  desire  me  to  express  to  you  publicly  the  intenser  feelings  of  sym- 
pathy which  have  been  engendered  in  their  hearts. 

Like  all  loyal  Americans,  my  countrymen  rejoice  over  the  recent  brilliant 
successes  of  your  arms,  successes  which,  having  been  planned  with  marked 
ability,  in  a  few  days  gave  the  death-stroke  to  the  most  formidable  and  unjusti- 
fiable rebellion  which  history  bears  record  of.  Our  joy,  like  yours,  has  been 
marred  by  horror  at  the  odiousness  of  a  crime  unheard  of  in  the  annals  of  re- 
publics. Well  can  it  be  said,  that  in  the  death  of  the  late  lamented  President, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  your  country  was  robbed  of  a  dear  father,  and  thus  added 
another,  and  the  most  precious,  to  the  long  list  of  sacrifices  which  it  has  been 
called  upon  to  make  during  the  late  troublous  times.  But  the  Swiss,  as  repub- 
licans, are  proud  to  bear  witness  to  the  fact  that  the  great  Republic  of  the 
United  States,  owing  to  the  wisdom  of  her  institutions  and  to  the  energy  of  her 
people,  shows  at  the  present  moment  to  the  world  her  ability  to  pass  unscathed 
through  the  severest  calamities,  to  overcome  the  most  manifold  trials,  and  defy 
as  well  the  openly-planned  attacks  of  anarchy  as  also  the  secret  conspiracies  of 
assassins.  A  profound  and  general  mourning  extends  over  the  land,  but  devoid 
of  those  political  convulsions  which  would  infallibly  follow  such  events  in 
many  other  countries.  The  whole  nation  is  afflicted,  but  remains  unmoved 
and  vigilant.  The  law  inflexible,  yet  scarcely  ceased  not  an  instant  to  reign 
supreme,  and  the  great  work  which  is  being  performed  continues  uninterrupted. 
May  your  Republic  always  overcome,  in  like  manner,  such  other  trials  as  God, 
in  His  inscrutable  providence,  may  yet  have  in  store  for  you. 

May  the  noble  victim  whom  we  all  moura,  the  greatest  of  this  struggle,  also 
be  its  last,  and  may  his  venerable  tomb  become  the  seal  to  the  restoration  of  the 
Union  on  a  more  solid  basis  than  ever  before. 

The  time  is  near,  and  we  can  already  hail  with  joy  the  national  greatness 
which  shall  succeed  all  your  trials,  so  fruitful  in  results. 


121 

The  faith  in  the  final  triumph  of  right  and  justice,  faith  in  the  right  of  lib- 
erty and  republican  institutions,  will  everywhere  be  strengthened. 

We  cannot  terminate  without  asking  your  Excellency  to  accept  also  the  ex- 
pression of  our  entire  confidence  in  your  ability  so  to  administer  your  govern- 
ment as  to  fulfil  its  important  mission,  at  home  as  well  as  abroad.  Your  past 
public  life,  already  re-afiirmed  by  the  wisdom  of  your  acts  as  Chief  Magistrate, 
is  a  sure  guaranty  that  the  task  which  so  unexpectedly  devolved  upon  you  has 
fallen  into  good  hands. 

President  Johnson,  replying,  said: 

Me.  Consul  General  Hitz:  I  thank  you  for  the  sympathy  which  you  have 
expressed,  on  behalf  of  your  countrymen,  for  our  recent  bereavement,  and  for 
your  congratulations  upon  the  success  of  our  arms.  We  can  have  no  distrust 
of  the  heartiness  of  these  feelings.  Switzerland  herself  has  had  her  trials,  and 
haa  been  called  on  to  endure  sacrifices.  She  has,  however,  triumphed  over  all, 
and  her  heroism,  patience,  and  self-denial  have  had,  and  will  continue  to  have, 
the  effect  of  strengthening  similar  qualities  in  the  people  of  other  countries. 

The  new  French  Minister,  the  Marquis  de  Montholon,  on 
presenting  his  credentials  to  the  President,  expressed  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  French  government  as  follows  : 

Mr.  Peesident:  I  am  happy  to  bring  hither,  on  a  solemn  occasion,  the  loyal 
and  frank  expressions  of  the  wishes  the  Emperor,  my  august  sovereign,  forms 
for  the  complete  restoration  of  peace  and  of  concord  on  the  continent  of  Amer- 
ica. The  whole  of  the  French  people,  partaking  in  the  same  thought,  will 
always  view  with  satisfaction  the  consolidation  of  the  majesty  and  greatness 
of  the  United  States. 

Animated  with  these  sentiments  of  deep  feeling  for  the  American  Union, 
their  imperial  Majesties,  as  well  as  all  France,  share  equally  in  the  grief  in 
which  the  most  atrocious  of  crimes  has  just  plunged  the  Government  and  people 
of  the  United  States. 

President  Johnson,  in  closing  his  reply,  said 

I  offer  you  my  hearty  thanks  for  the  sympathy  you  express,  on  behalf  ol 
their  imperial  Majesties,  for  the  recent  tragical  events  in  thus  metropolis. 


TRIBUTES  OF  THE  STATES. 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

Washington,  D.  C,  April  18,  1865. 

Pursuant  to  a  published  call,  the  citizens  of  New  Hampshire, 
resident  at  the  national  capital,  met  at  the  State  A«fency  rooms, 
on  Seventh  street,  for  the  purpose  of  making  arrangements  to 
attend  the  funeral  of  our  late  President.  The  meeting,  upon 
being  called  to  order,  proceeded  to  organize,  with  the  choice  of 
the  following  officers :  Hon.  E.  A.  Rollins,  chairman ;  J.  A. 
Prescott,  secretary. 

Mr.  Rollins,  on  taking  the  chair,  addressed  the  meeting  at 
considerable  length,  setting  forth  the  praiseworthiness  of  its 
object,  and  in  behalf  of  those  present,  and  the  old  Granite 
State,  paid  a  high  and  eulogistic  tribute  of  respect  to  the 
memory  of  our  lamented  Chief  Magistrate. 

Hon.  N.  G.  Ordway,  in  some  brief  remarks,  spoke  very  feel- 
ingly of  the  occasion  that  had  called  the  sons  of  New  Hamp- 
shire together,  and  pleasingly  alluded  to  the  great  and  good 
character  of  the  one  whose  last  eartlily  honors  were  about  to 
transpire. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Morgan,  a  committee  of  three  were  ap- 
pointed to  draft  resolutions,  consisting  of  F.  H.  Morgan,  J.  C. 
Tasker,  and  Major  W.  H.  H.  Allen.  The  following  report  was 
adopted : 

Resolved,  That  the  unparalleled  atrocity  of  the  crimes  which  have  turned 
days  set  aside  in  so  many  places  for  national  rejoicing  into  days  of  national 
mourning  well-nigh  strikes  us  dumb.  We  are  lifted  above  the  capacities  of 
common  sceech  by  emotions  born  of  such  a  terrible  and  unlooked-for  calamity. 

123 


124 

2.  That  the  death  of  President  Lincoln  comes  to  each  one  of  us  with  all  the 
bitterness  of  a  personal  bereavement.  Our  love  has  grounded  itself  upon  the 
beautiful  symmetry  of  his  character,  and  our  confidence  justified  itself  in  the 
glorious  record  of  his  deeds,  which  have  been  an  epistle  known  and  read  of  all 
men. 

3.  That  we  thank  God  that  this  martyr  of  liberty  was  permitted  to  catch  a 
glimpse  of  the  promised  land;  that  in  answer  to  his  labors  and  his  prayers,  he 
heard  at  last  the  hallelujahs  of  grateful  freedmen.  We  thank  Him  that  "the 
good  which  a  man  does  lives  after  him,"  and  that  the  weapon  of  the  assassin 
which  let  out  the  life-blood  of  this  exalted  patriot  could  not  unhinge  our 
memory  from  his  deeds  in  the  past  nor  his  fame  from  the  future.  We  rejoice 
that,  his  life,  though  so  shortened  in  years,  was  so  well  rounded  for  time,  and 
that  those  attributes  which  most  ennoble  humanity,  born  in  this  man  and 
fostered  by  circumstances,  were  permitted  to  so  ripen  and  strengthen  and  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  his  race,  that  he  shall  in  all  coming  time  be  pointed  at 
by  the  educators  of  youth  as  a  patriot  statesman,  whose  virtues  lifted  him  above 
the  reach  of  calumny  or  reproach. 

4.  That  we  approach  with  solemn  awe  the  circle  in  which  our  lamented  Pres- 
ident was  wont  to  rest  himself  from  the  cares  and  troubles  of  state.  If  there  is 
an  exultation  in  public  woe,  there  is  a  sacredness  in  private  grief.  Though  he 
was  so  much  to  us,  miserable  comforters  must  we  be  to  those  who  knew  him 
amidst  the  beautiful  amenities  of  home  life.  In  our  weakness  we  entrust  his 
stricken  wife  and  children  to  the  solace  which  has  given  strength  to  the  widow 
and  fatherless  since  the  widow  and  the  fatherless  have  dwelt  upon  the  earth. 

5.  That  the  abomination  of  slavery  has  culminated  in  the  murder  of  the 
nation's  benefactor.  We  are  not  to  look  calmly  upon  the  spilling  of  our  best 
blood.  Trust  in  God's  justice  and  providence  does  not  teach  supineness  when 
murderers  go  at  large.  Instinct  louder  than  law  calls  for  the  punishment  of  the 
perpetrators  of  this  foul  crime,  and  sainted  blood  cries  from  the  ground  that 
every  vestige  of  the  poison  which  has  festered  into  this  horrible  wound  shall 
be  cleansed  from  the  nation.  Let  every  one  who  partaketh  of  the  accursed 
thing  be  put  out  of  the  camp.  Let  mercy  temper  justice,  but  let  not  justice  de- 
generate into  weakness.  Let  murderers  and  traitors  take  murderers'  and 
traitors'  rewards,  and  let  the  expression  of  public  sentiment  be  so  cogent  that 
eubmission  to  order  and  right  shall  become  a  necessity  where  it  may  not  be  a 
virtue.  Our  country  cannot  die.  Thrice  purified  shall  she  come  out  from  these 
troublous  times ;  and  may  we  so  conduct  as  to  have  ourselves  written  up»n  this 
page  of  her  history  as  a  people  not  unconscious  of  her  capacity  and  her  destiny. 

•  6.  That  gratitude  for  God's  goodness  in  so  wonderfully  preserving  Secre- 
tary Seward  and  his  family  has  ameliorated  in  no  small  degree  our  national 
calamity.     A  great  man  has  been  saved  when  a  great  man  was  most  needed, 

7.  That  to  Andrew  Johnson,  so  suddenly  called  to  the  presidency  so  cruelly 
vacated,  in  behalf  of  ourselves  and  our  State,  we  pledge  our  unwavering  faith 
and  support.  His  own  ability,  years  ago,  carried  him  to  prominence  among 
great  men.  Long  experience  has  matured  his  judgment,  and  his  patriotism,  put 
to  the  severest  tests,  glows  brighter  by  the  trial.  We  accept  him  as  the  ap- 
pointed of  God — our  nation's  leader  and  deliverer. 


125 

8.  That,  as  expressive  of  our  sorrow  at  the  death  of  President  Lincoln,  we 
wear  the  usual  badge  of  mourning  upon  our  left  arm  for  the  period  of  thirty 
days. 

J.  A.  PRESCOTT,  Secretary. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

The  citizens  of  Massachusetts  met  on  Monday,  the  18th  of 
April,  at  the  Massachusetts  State  Agency,  to  take  action  in 
reference  to  the  death  and  burial  of  President  Lincoln. 

Colonel  Tufts  called  the  meeting  to  order.  Judge  M.  S. 
Stone  presided,  and  I.  S.  Brown  acted  as  secretary.  The 
meeting  was  opened  with  prayer  by  Rev.  N.  M.  Gaylord.  On 
motion,  Major  Benjamin  Perley  Poor,  I.  E.  Farbank,  and 
Guilford  White  were  appointed  to  prepare  suitable  resolutions. 
The  meeting  was  addressed  by  Hon.  H.  S.  Dawes,  Hon.  D.  W. 
Gooch,  members  of  Congress,  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler, 
Hon.  John  Prince,  and  Rev.  N.  M.  Gaylord. 

Resolutions  were  reported  by  Major  Poor,  and  adopted,  as 
follows  : 

Whereas  it  has  pleased  Almighty  God,  in  His  mysterious  yet  wise  providence, 
to  take  out  of  this  world  the  soul  of  our  deceased  Chief  Magistrate,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  it  becomes  us  men  of  Massachusetts,  residents  or  sojourners  at  the 
national  capital,  to  publicly  express  our  sorrow  at  the  loss  of  one  who  has 
been  foremost  in  perfecting  these  United  States  of  America  as  a  free  and 
independent  nation : 

Resolved,  That  we  regard  Abraham  Lincoln  as  a  noble  type  of  the  American 
citizen.  His  private  life  has  ever  been  characterized  by  purity,  integrity, 
wisdom,  moderation,  genial  manners ;  while  his  public  career  has  been  marked 
by  a  love  of  liberty,  sterling  patriotism,  persuasive  eloquence,  eagerness  to 
exercise  mercy,  perfect  integrity,  and  a  desire  to  perform  what  he  believed  to 
be  his  duty  towards  the  citizens  of  every  State  and  Territory,  no  matter 
whether  they  were  loyal  or  rebellious,  white  or  black.  Knowing  his  duties,  he 
fulfilled  them ;  knowing  his  prerogatives,  he  exercised  them ;  strong  in  the 
consciousness  of  rectitude,  and  only  asking  the  support  of  the  people,  to 
whom  he  appealed  rather  than  to  the  politicians,  he  manfully  performed  what 
he  believed  to  be  his  duty  to  his  family,  to  his  friends,  to  his  country,  to  the 
human  race,  and  to  his  God. 

Resolved,  That  in  Andrew  Johnson  we  feel  that  the  deceased  President  has  a 
successor,  whose  simplicity  of  character,  singleness  of  purpose,  and  moral 
courage,  will  enable  him  to  carry  out  the  work  so  gloriously  commenced.  We 
feel  confident  that  our  beloved  Commonwealth,  which  has  ever  been  ready  to 
Btrengthen  and  to  sustain  the  deceased,  will  give  President  Johnson  a  cordial. 


126 

earnest,  and  hearty  support,  endorsing  his  noble  sentiment,  that  "  since  kind- 
ness has  been  repaid  by  assassination,  treason  is  a  crime  to  be  punished  with 
justice." 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  an  expression  of  our  heart-felt  sympathy  to  the 
bereaved  family  of  the  deceased,  who  can  best  appreciate  his  good  and  noblo 
qualities  of  heart,  and  who  can  be  comforted  by  their  recollections  of  his  pri- 
vate virtues  and  of  his  public  services.     A  nation  mourns  with  them. 

Resolved,  That  copies  of  these  resolutions  be  transmitted  to  the  family  of  the 
deceased,  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Governor  of  Alassachu- 
eetts,  as  a  memorial  of  the  heart-felt  son-ow  with  which  the  sons  of  the  Bay 
State  in  Washington  have  learned  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Governor  Andrew,  on  the  ITth  of  April,  sent  a  message  to 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  then  in  session,  of  which  the 
following  is  an  extract : 

Standing,  as  we  do,  by  the  open  grave  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  we  seem  to  have 
taken  now  a  new  departure  in  our  history.  The  cannon  which  fulminated  the 
thunders  of  rebellion  against  the  walls  of  Fort  Sumter  were  the  signal  guns  of 
a  revolution  which — turned  back  upon  itself  by  the  glorious  uprising  of  a  free 
people — has  advanced,  on  its  swelling  tide,  the  Cause  which  the  rebellion  was 
intended  to  destroy.  Thus  far  the  moral  defeat  of  treason  has  been  exemplary 
and  overwhelming.  The  vigor  and  persistency  of  the  people,  their  energy  in 
the  greatest  exigencies  of  a  nation,  while  the  tremendous  and  dreadful  behests 
of  war  summoned  them  to  duty,  have  been  fully  vindicated. 

We  had  outlived  the  weary  period  of  delays  and  military  discouragement; 
through  many  disappointments,  and  out  of  many  disasters,  we  had  risen  to  the 
loftiest  and  sunniest  heights  of  assured,  decisive,  and  overwhelming  victory  in 
the  field  of  arms.  Four  years,  to  a  single  day,  had  intervened  while  this  work 
of  the  American  people  was  going  on,  when  upon  the  anniversary  of  the  attack 
on  Sumter,  the  flag  of  the  Union,  borne  back  with  pomp  and  pageant,  was 
restored  with  becoming  ceremony  to  its  citadel,  by  the  same  hands  which  had 
been  compelled  by  superior  force  to  strike  it  in  surrender.  Abraham  Lincoln 
had  been  spared  and  sustained  through  all  these  weary  months  and  years  to 
witness  the  majestic  triumphs,  the  conquering  marches  of  our  resistless  ar- 
mies, to  hear  the  last  wail  of  disloyal  discontent  in  the  loyal  States,  to  receive 
the  united  congratulations  of  the  acclaiming  millions  of  his  countrymen,  to 
reap  a  sweeter  and  richer  reward  of  deliverance  and  victory  than  had  ever 
been  enjoyed  by  any  ruler  of  the  sons  of  men.  His  career  closed  at  a  moment 
when  its  dramatic  unity  was  complete,  and  when  his  departure  from  life  on 
earth  was  the  apotheosis,  and  the  translation  by  which,  defended  against  all 
the  shocks  and  mishaps  of  time,  he  passed  on  to  immortality.  Without  dis- 
paragement of  his  loftiness  and  fulness,  and  without  detracting  from  tlie  meas- 
ure of  his  glory,  may  we  not  recognize  in  his  career  a  direction  supreme  above 
the  devices  or  conceptions  of  man,  and,  seeing  how  a  Divine  hand  has  led  us 
through  these  paths  of  trial,  yield  confidingly  to  its  guidance  in  all  future 
years. 


127 


CONNECTICUT. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Connecticut,  lield  at  the  rooms 
of  Governor  Buckingham,  in  Willards'  Hotel,  city  of  Wash- 
ington, April  17, 1865,  Governor  Buckingham  was  called  upon 
to  preside,  and  W.  A.  Benedict  was  chosen  secretary. 

Governor  Buckingham  stated  that  the  object  of  the  meeting 
was  to  give  some  fitting  form  of  expression  to  the  feelings  of 
the  citizens  of  Connecticut,  in  view  of  the  great  calamity  which 
has  spread  its  pall  of  darkness  over  the  nation  in  the  death  of 
its  honored  head,  and  to  make  arrangements  for  participating 
in  the  approaching  funeral  ceremonies. 

Suggestions  were  made  by  Hon.  James  Dixon  and  others. 

The  following  committees  were  appointed  :  On  resolutions 
expressive  of  the  feelings  of  the  meeting,  Hon.  Lafayette  S. 
Foster,  Hon.  James  Dixon,  and  H.  H.  Starkweather  ;  on  ar- 
rangements for  participating  in  the  funeral  ceremonies,  Hon. 
James  Dixon,  W.  A.  Thompson,  Col.  H.  H.  Osgood,  J.  A. 
Wheelock,  and  Colonel  J.  H.  Almy. 

On  motion  of  Senator  Dixon,  the  name  of  Governor  Buck- 
ingham was  added  as  chairman  of  this  committee. 

After  further  suggestions  from  gentlemen  present,  the  meet- 
ing adjourned  to  meet  at  the  same  place  to-morrow  afternoon 
at  two  o'clock. 

April  18,  1865,  the  meeting  met,  pursuant  to  adjournment, 
when  the  Hon.  James  Dixon  presented  the  following  resolu- 
tions ;  which  were  unanimously  adopted  : 

Resolved,  That,  sharing  with  the  people  of  Connecticut  the  unutterable  sor- 
row which  saddens  every  household  and  wrings  every  patriotic  heart  with  a 
sense  of  personal  bereavement,  in  the  death  of  the  late  lamented  President  of 
the  United  States,  we  unite  with  them  in  expressing  our  profound  grief,  and 
mingle  our  lamentations  with  theirs  under  the  crushing  blow  which  has  struck 
our  nation  from  the  summit  of  universal  gratitude  and  joy  into  the  utmost 
depths  of  affliction  and  mourning. 

Resolved,  That  we  mourn  the  loss  of  the  Peeseever  of  the  Union,  raised 
up  by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty  to  lead  our  nation  through  the  perils  of  the 
great  rebellion  ;  that  in  him  we  recognize  the  guiding  intellect,  the  conscientious 
purpose,  the  unfailing  judgment,  the  resolute  will,  the  unselfish  heart  which 
were  needed  to  constitute  the  leader  of  the  nation  in  its  hour  of  deepest  peril  ; 
and  that  his  humanity,  his  confiding  trust  in  God,  his  devoted  love  of  his  coun- 


128 

try  and  of  the  human  race,  his  entire  consecration  to  the  spirit  of  universal 
liberty,  have  placed  him  among  the  foremost  of  the  great  benefactors  of  man- 
kind, who  have  blessed  the  world  and  shed  honor  upon  the  human  character. 

Resolved,  That  while  we  mourn  the  unspeakable  loss  which  our  nation  has 
suffered,  we  devoutly  offer  to  the  Great  Ruler  of  the  universe  our  reverent  and 
earnest  thanks  that  He  permitted  our  departed  and  lamented  President 
to  live  and  rule  over  our  imperilled  country  until,  under  his  wise  and  firm  con- 
trol, aided  by  the  Almighty  hand,  he  was  permitted  to  see  the  rebel  hosts  de- 
feated and  surrendered,  their  capital  and  their  seaports  restored  to  the  authority 
of  the  nation,  their  military  power  overthrown,  their  wicked  leaders  driven 
from  their  seats  of  power,  the  great  cause  of  the  rebellion — human  slavery — 
abolished  and  destroyed,  and  liberty  and  equal  rights  for  all  made  the  basis  of 
our  national  existence. 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  the  Honora- 
ble Andrew  Johnson,  the  assurance  of  our  earnest  and  unqualified  support  in 
the  performance  of  the  arduous  and  responsible  duties  now  devolved  upon  him, 
and  that  we  invoke  for  him  the  same  conscientious  purpose,  the  same  resolute 
will,  and  the  same  Divine  inspiration  and  support  by  which  his  great  predeces- 
sor was  sustained  and  upheld  by  the  Almighty  hand. 

Resolved,  That  we  acknowledge  with  gratitude  the  providential  interposition 
by  which  our  beloved  and  honored  Secretary  of  State — the  confidential  friend 
and  adviser  of  Abraham  Lincoln — has  been  protected  and  preserved  from  the 
dangers  and  violence  to  which  he  has  been  exposed ;  that  we  offer  to  him  our 
deepest  sympathy,  and  unite  in  the  prayers  of  the  nation  for  his  speedy  and 
perfect  restoration  to  health,  and  for  the  safety  and  preservation  of  his  family. 

Resolved,  That  we  v/ill,  as  representatives  of  our  State,  attend  the  funeral 
services  of  onr  lamented  President  in  a  body,  and  wear  the  usual  badge  ol 
mourning  for  sixty  days. 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  family  of  the  deceased  President  the  assur- 
ance of  our  deep  and  heartfelt  sympathy  in  the  great  affliction  to  which  God 
has  called  them,  and  that  we  humbly  and  devoutly  supplicate  for  them  the 
blessing  and  support  of  their  Heavenly  Father. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  transmitted  to  the  family  of 
the  late  President,  to  the  Honorable  Secretary  of  State,  and  to  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  that  they  be  published  in  the  public  press  of  Con  - 
necticut. 

The  reading  of  the  above  resolutions  was  followed  by  remarks 
from  Hon.  James  F.  Babcock,  Senator  Dixon,  Governor  Buck- 
ingham, Hon.  H.  D.  Sperry,  H.  H.  Starkweather,  A.  H.  By- 
ington,  W.  A.  Thompson,  A,  F.  Williams,  and  others,  appre- 
ciative of  the  character  and  worth  of  the  late  President,  and 
of  the  irreparable  loss  the  nation  has  sustained  by  his  death  ; 
expressive  of  hearty  sympathy  for  the  stricken  family,  and 
for  the  afflicted  family  of  the  Secretary  of  State  ;  expressive 


129 

also  of  the  fullest  confidence  in  the  integrity,  ability,  and  pa- 
triotic devotion  to  the  interests  of  his  country  of  the  Honorable 
Andrew  Johnson,  now  President  of  the  United  States. 

Governor  Buckingham  spoke  as  follows  : 

In  all  my  intercourse  with  the  late  President,  I  have  found  him  calm,  self- 
possessed,  discerning,  honest  in  intention,  and  conscientious  in  action.  I  did 
not  regard  him  as  perfect.  I  have  found  no  perfection  on  earth ;  but  I  am  firm 
in  the  belief  that  no  man  would  have  been  found  so  well  adapted  to  the  crisis 
in  our  national  affairs,  no  one  who  could  so  wisely  and  successfully  have  dis- 
charged the  duties  of  the  executive  office  through  a  season  unparalleled  in  the 
history  of  nations. 

In  the  stroke  that  has  smitten  him  down  when  he  seemed  more  than  ever 
to  be  needed  I  recognize  the  hand  of  God. 

It  is  a  bitter  cup  we  have  had  presented  to  our  lips.  It  is  a  grievous  burden 
we  are  called  upon  to  bear.  But  in  our  sorrow  we  must  not  forget  that  the 
providence  brings  with  it  lessons  of  the  deepest  import. 

It  is  well  for  us  to  study  these  lessons.  God  is  just.  It  has  sometimes  ap- 
peared to  me  that  there  was  a  growing  disposition  to  show  too  much  clemency 
to  the  traitors  who  have  plotted  the  ruin  of  this  glorious  republic.  I  have 
feared  there  might  be  danger  of  degrading  magnanimity  into  the  robbery  of 
justice.  Perhaps  God  would  teach  us  by  the  terrible  blow  He  has  inflicted  as 
one  of  its  lessons  that  we  must  be  just,  and  punish  according  to  its  full  desert 
the  treason  that  has  culminated  in  such  an  act  of  atrocity.  We  may  have 
needed  just  such  teaching  to  reveal  to  us  the  full  enormity  of  the  crime  that 
has  been  perpetrated  against  our  government.  And  now  that  we  have  been 
taught,  our  way  is  plain — let  us  show  mercy  to  whom  mercy  is  due,  and  execute 
justice  upon  those  whose  crimes  are  too  great  to  be  forgiven.  To  the  deluded 
masses  of  the  South,  mercy  is  due — to  the  leaders  in  the  great  rebellion,  no 
mercy  can  be  shown. 

In  the  future  of  this  nation  I  have  confidence.  Under  the  guiding  hand  of 
the  Almighty  Ruler  of  nations  we  shall  fulfil  our  destiny.  I  have  confidence 
also  in  him  so  unexpectedly  called  upon  to  assume  the  responsibilities  of  the 
executive  office.  I  believe  Andrew  Johnson  fully  realizes  the  responsibilities 
now  devolved  upon  him.  I  have  confidence  in  his  honesty  of  purpose,  his 
ability  as  a  statesman,  and  his  earnest  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  country. 
I  shall  be  much  mistaken  if  he  does  not  prove  himself  equal  to  the  great 
emergency.     He  shall  have  my  cordial  and  hearty  support. 

NEW  YORK. 

A  numerously-attended  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  New  York 
was  held  on  the  17  th  April,  at  the  New  York  State  Agency. 

9 


130 

Judge  J.  N.  Granger  presided.     The  following  preamble  and 
resolutions,  offered  by  Colonel  Goodrich,  were  passed : 

Whereas  his  Excellency  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  died  on  the  morning  of  the  15th  of  April,  from  wounds  received  at  the 
hands  of  an  assassin ;  and  upon  the  same  evening  the  Hon.  William  H.  Seward, 
Secretary  of  State,  was  assassinated  in  his  bed,  and  his  two  sons  perhaps  mor- 
tally wounded;  therefore 

Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  our  beloved  President  our  whole  country  has 
lost  its  best  and  dearest  friend ;  that  his  life  is  the  brightest  page  of  our  nation's 
glory,  his  death  the  saddest  of  our  nation's  sorrows  ;  that  we  prayerfully  ask 
Him  who  ruleth  all  the  people  of  the  earth  in  His  providence  to  work  out  His 
purpose  in  this  appalling  calamity  that  has  gone  so  near  to  the  hearts  of  the 
American  people,  and  to  decree  and  hasten  that  end  which  our  lamented  Presi- 
dent so  nearly  consummated,  and  to  which  he  died  a  martyr — namely.  Christian 
liberty  and  American  Union, 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  bereaved  wife  and  children  of  him  who  has 
been  so  suddenly  stricken  down  our  warmest  sympathies  and  condolence ;  that 
we  offer  also  to  the  highly-esteemed  Secretary  of  State,  and  each  member  of  his 
family,  our  earnest  hopes  for  their  recovery  to  health  and  usefulness  in  the  high 
places  which  they  have  so  long  and  honorably  filled. 

Resolved,  That  we  give  our  earnest  assurance  to  his  Excellency  Andrew 
Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States,  that  we  will  bring  to  his  administra- 
tion the  same  hearty  adherence  and  support  as  we  have  always  borne  to  that 
of  his  predecessor. 

Resolved,  That  we  wear  the  usual  badge  of  mourning  for  the  period  of  sixty 
days,  and  that  we  attend  the  funeral  of  our  deceased  President  in  a  body. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  transmitted  to  the  family  of 
the  late  President,  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  to  his  Excellency  Andrew 
Johnson, 


In  a  proclamation  appointing  a  day  of  prayer  and  humilia- 
tion, on  account  of  the  President's  death.  Governor  Fen  ton 
said : 


The  fearful  tragedy  at  Washington  has  converted  an  occasion  of  rejoicing 
over  national  victory  into  one  of  national  mourning.  It  is  fitting,  therefore, 
that  the  20th  day  of  April,  heretofore  set  apart  as  a  day  of  thanksgiving,  should 
now  be  dedicated  to  services  appropriate  to  a  season  of  national  bereavement. 

Bowing  reverently  to  the  providence  of  God,  let  us  assemble  in  our  places  of 
•worship  on  that  day,  to  acknowledge  our  dependence  on  Him  who  has  brought 
Budden  darkness  on  the  land  in  the  very  hour  of  its  restoration  to  Union,  peace, 
and  liberty. 


131 


NEW   JERSEY. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  New  Jersey,  held  at  the 
rooms  of  Col.  Rafferty,  Military  State  Agent,  on  Monday  even- 
ing, the  17th  of  April,  Hon.  Edward  Satter  was  appointed 
chairman,  and  Dr.  A.  P.  Parton,  secretary.  Messrs.  J.  F. 
Burr  and  Isaac  Hacker  reported  the  following  resolutions  : 

Whereas,  in  view  of  the  dreadful  calamity  which  has  suddenly  deprived  the 
nation  of  its  beloved  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  while  devoutly  recognizing 
the  hand  of  God,  we  bow  in  sorrow  before  His  inscrutable  dispensation  : 

Resolved,  That  in  his  death  the  country  has  lost  a  true,  just,  and  wise  man; 
one  possessing  the  loftiest  patriotism  and  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  human  freedom,  "  with  malice  toward  none,  but  charity  for  all."  By  calm 
and  temperate  judgment  and  intrepid  devotion  to  duty  he  has  carried  our 
Union  through  the  most  horrible  conflict  with  treason  that  the  world  has  ever 
witnessed.  The  time  had  arrived  when  all  men  were  about  to  proclaim  him 
the  saviour  of  his  country,  when  the  hand  of  a  cowardly  fiend  robbed  earth  and 
gave  to  heaven  his  sanctified  spirit. 

Resolved,  That  to  his  family  and  immediate  friends  we  extend  our  deepest 
sympathy,  and  we  can  well  measure  the  depth  of  their  sorrow  by  ours. 

Resolved,  That,  appreciating  the  services  of  Wm.  H.  Seward,  as  Secretary  of 
State,  with  the  highest  regard  for  his  wisdom  and  integrity,  we  pray  that  God 
may  be  pleased  to  spare  his  life ;  and  we  cordially  sympathize  with  his  family, 
and  trust  to  rejoice  with  them  by  the  speedy  recovery  of  father  and  son. 

Resolved,  That  with  the  fullest  confidence  in  the  honesty  and  patriotism  of 
Andrew  Johnson,  who  suddenly  has  been  called  upon  to  assume  the  duties  of 
Chief  Magistrate,  we  pledge  our  cordial  and  fullest  support  in  all  efforts  to  com- 
plete the  work  of  his  immortal  predecessor. 

Resolved,  That  we  wear  insignia  of  mourning,  bearing  the  coat  of  arms  of 
our  State,  for  the  period  of  sixty  days. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

A  large  meeting  of  citizens  of  Pennsylvania,  then  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  was  held  on  Monday  evening,  April  17th, 
in  the  Hall  of  the  Union  League,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  ex- 
pression to  their  feelings  upon  the  national  bereavement  that 
has  befallen  the  country,  in  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  late 
President  of  the  United  States. 

The  meeting  organized  by  appointing  the  Hon.  Joseph  Ca- 
sey, Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Claims,  president,  and  A.  L. 
Hennershotz,  Esq.,  secretary.     After  an  appropriate  prayer  by 


132 

the  Rev.  "W.  A.  Cook,  and  an  eloquent,  impressive  address  bj 
the  presiding  officer,  on  motion,  Brigadier  General  James  A. 
Ekin,  Hon.  John  Covode,  Hon.  John  Joseph  Lewis,  Hon.  Ed- 
ward McPherson,  Rev.  W.  A.  Cook,  John  M.  Sullivan,  Esq., 
Hon.  J.  E.  Bradj,  Major  D.  L.  Eaton,  and  S.  W.  Pearson,  Esq., 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  prepare  and  report  resolutions 
expressive  of  the  sense  of  the  meeting.  Tiie  committee  retired, 
and  after  a  brief  interval — during  whicli  the  meeting  was  ad- 
dressed by  Mr.  Joseph  J.  Chase — reported,  through  their  chair- 
man, Gen.  Ekin,  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions  ;  which 
were  unanimously  adopted  : 

Whereas,  by  the  cov;ardly  act  of  an  assassin,  our  honored  Chief  Magistrate, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  was  suddenly  stricken  down  at  a  time  when  the  auspicious 
results  of  his  great  and  patriotic  labors  gave  full  assurance  of  the  speedy  down- 
fall of  the  rebellion,  and  of  the  immediate  restoration  of  the  national  authority 
throughout  the  entire  Union ;  and  whereas,  by  this  appalling  national  calamity, 
our  beloved  country  has  lost  its  first  citizen,  and  our  glorious  Union  its  chief 
defender,  while  a  whole  nation  is  bowed  down  in  grief  unutterable ;  and 
whereas,  by  his  wise  statesmanship,  by  his  unfaltering  devotion  to  the  great 
cause  of  human  liberty,  by  his  ardent  affection  for  the  Union  of  the  States,  by 
the  purity  of  his  motives,  and  the  kindness  of  his  heart.  President  Lincoln 
commanded  the  respect,  the  love,  and  the  admiration  of  the  loyal  people  of 
America  to  a  degree  unequalled  since  the  days  of  the  illustrious  Washington  ; 
and  whereas  we,  citizens  of  Pennsylvania,  and  residents  of  the  National  Me- 
tropolis, are  desirous  to  attest  the  profound  sorrow  which  fills  our  hearts  in  the 
contemplation  of  this  great  public  bereavement :  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  his  Excellency  Abraham  Lincoln,  President 
of  the  United  States,  the  nation  mourns  the  loss  of  a  wise  statesman,  a  true  pa- 
triot, and  an  honest  man  ;  that  his  honored  name  will  forever  live  in  the  affec- 
tions of  loyal  Pennsylvanians,  as  well  as  those  of  the  whole  loyal  American 
people  ;  that  none  will  shine  brighter  or  purer  in  the  annals  of  a  nation  which 
he  successfully  guided  through  the  furious  storms  of  a  causeless  and  wicked  re- 
bellion ;  that  in  him  we  saw  personified  and  illustrated  the  noble  principles 
which  have  made  Pennsylvania  great  and  powerful ;  great,  because  her  corner- 
stone was  laid  in  equity  and  justice  toward  all  men;  powerful,  because  labor 
has  ever  been  her  wealth,  and  through  all  her  borders  the  laborer  is  held 
worthy  of  his  hire. 

Resolved,  That  in  this  most  terrible  calamity  we  see  but  another  illustration 
of  the  diabolical  spirit  of  American  slavery ;  and  in  the  sacrifice  of  him,  our 
beloved  friend,  but  the  latest  victim  of  that  malignant  hate  which  has  made 
our  land  a  house  of  mourning,  swallowed  up  our  substance,  changed  many  fair 
fields  into  a  wilderness,  and  written  upon  the  pages  of  our  history  a  bloody 
and  painful  record  of  war  and  desolation  without  parallel  in  the  book  of  time. 
Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  family  of  the  distinguished  deceased  our 


133 

sincere  condolence  in  this  their  hour  of  inexpressible  anguish,  invoking  for 
them  the  kind  and  merciful  dispensations  of  a  beneficent  Providence. 

Besolved,  That  we  will  attend  in  a  body  the  funeral  of  the  lamented  deceased. 

Resolved,  That  our  warmest  sympathies  are  hereby  tendered  to  the  distin- 
guished citizens  of  our  sister  State  of  New  York,  the  Hon.  William  H.  Seward, 
Secretary  of  State,  and  also  to  his  respected  son,  the  Hon.  Frederick  W.  Seward, 
Assistant  Secretary,  in  the  great  suffering  which  has  befallen  them,  through  the 
foul  spirit  of  the  assassin ;  and  we  fervently  express  the  hope  that  they  may 
soon  be  restored  to  their  country  and  their  friends. 

Resolved,  That  we  have  an  abiding  confidence  in  the  wisdom,  patriotism,  and 
firmness  of  President  Andrew  Johnson,  and  we  promise  to  him  the  cordial  sup- 
port of  the  loyal  people  of  Pennsylvania  in  carrying  out,  to  full  completion, 
the  noble  work  now  so  nearly  finished — the  re-establishment  of  the  national 
authority  in  every  State  of  the  American  Union ;  that  his  determination  to  visit 
with  condign  punishment  the  guilty  authors  and  leaders  of  the  rebellion  meets 
with  our  unqualified  approbation,  and  we  promise  to  stand  by  the  new  President 
with  the  same  devotion  we  extended  to  his  illustrious  predecessor. 

Resolved,  That  a  certified  copy  of  the  foregoing  preamble  and  resolutions  be 
forwarded  to  the  respected  widow  of  the  late  President  of  the  United  States,  to 
President  Johnson,  and  to  the  Hon.  Secretary  of  State. 

Resolved,  That  we  will  wear  the  usual  badge  of  mourning  for  sixty  days. 

OHIO. 

A  meeting  of  Ohio  citizens,  in  Washington  city,  was  held  at 
the  office  of  J.  C.  Wetmore,  Esq.,  on  Monday  evening,  the  17th 
of  April,  1865,  at  which  Hon.  K.  C.  Schenck  was  called  to  the 
chair,  and  Mr.  Wetmore  chosen  secretary.  After  touching  and 
appropriate  remarks  by  the  chairman,  a  committee,  consisting 
of  Hon.  A.  M.  Gangewer  ;  Hon.  E.  Jordan,  Solicitor  of  the 
Treasury  ;  Hon.  A.  G.  Riddle,  Rev.  B.  F.  Morris,  Hon.  Wm. 
Helmick,  Hon.  R.  W.  Tayler,  and  Rev.  J.  H.  Bonte,  was  ap- 
pointed to  prepare  a  series  of  resolutions.  The  following  were 
presented  and  unanimously  adopted  : 

Resolved,  That,  in  common  with  the  loyal  people  of  tne  entire  country,  we 
mourn  the  loss  of  the  President  of  the  Pi.epublic,  Abraham  Lincoln.  Wise, 
patriotic,  and  good,  he  was  honored,  trusted,  and  loved  to  a  degree  seldom  if 
ever  surpassed  ;  the  friend  of  the  people,  the  protector  of  the  oppressed,  and  the 
saviour  of  his  country,  all  will  unite  to  weep  his  fall.  Called  to  act  the  first 
part  in  the  grandest  drama  of  time,  and  having  acted  it  so  nobly,  his  fame  will 
grow  brighter  as  advancing  ages  shall  set  in  bolder  relief  his  illustrious  virtues. 
Falling  at  the  post  of  duty,  a  martyr  to  his  love  of  country  and  of  right,  and 
to  his  hatred  of  treason  and  oppression,  his  death  will  secure  the  great  objects 


134 

to  which  his  life  was  devoted — the  unity  and  peace  of  his  country,  and  the 
freedom  and  happiness  of  all  his  countrymen. 

Eesolved,  That  we  tender  our  most  heartfelt  condolence  to  the  stricken 
family  of  the  illustrious  deceased. 

Resolved,  That,  in  the  assassination  of  the  President,  we  perceive  an  appal- 
ling exhibition  of  the  brutalizing  and  relentless  spirit  engendered  by  slavery, 
and  a  fresh  proof  that  there  can  be  no  safety  to  the  country  until  that  spirit 
shall  be  completely  crushed ;  an  end  which,  in  our  opinion,  can  only  be  attained 
by  the  entire  extinction  of  slavery  itself,  and  the  adequate  punishment  of 
those  who,  at  its  bidding,  have  committed  deliberate  treason,  and  plunged  the 
nation  into  war. 

Resolved,  That,  far  from  being  disheartened  by  the  dreadful  calamity  which 
has  befallen  the  nation,  we  are  but  aroused  by  it  to  a  sterner  resolve  that  our 
Government  shall  be  sustained,  that  order  shall  be  preserved,  that  the  Union 
shall  be  maintained,  that  all  its  enemies  shall  be  subdued  and  punished,  and 
that  the  peace,  prosperity,  and  happiness  of  the  nation  shall  be  secured. 

Resolved,  That,  to  secure  these  ends,  with  entire  confidence  in  the  wisdom, 
integrity,  and  patriotism  of  Andrew  Johnson,  we  pledge  to  him  our  earnest 
and  unreserved  support  of  his  administration :  sprung,  like  his  great  predeces- 
sor, from  the  midst  of  the  people,  we  are  sure  that  the  interests  of  the  people 
will  be  safe  in  his  hands. 

J.  M.  McGrew  and  H.  M.  Slade  were  appointed  marshals. 

Governor  Brougli,  in  liis  proclamation  for  a  day  of  prayer 
and  humiliation,  in  view  of  the  affliction  of  Divine  Providence 
upon  the  nation,  recommends  the  day  to  be  observed  "as  a  Sab- 
bath of  the  nation  ;  that  all  our  people  unite,  not  only  in 
humiliation  before  the  Lord,  and  contemplation  of  the  services 
and  virtues  of  the  great  and  good  man  who  has  been  taken 
away  from  us,  but  in  earnest  prayer  that  Almighty  God  will 
sanctify  this  great  affliction  to  us  as  a  nation  and  a  people ;  that 
in  His  wise  providence  He  will  rule  all  these  things  for  our 
good,  and  that  He  will  strengthen  and  guide  our  present  rulers, 
and  endow  them  with  wisdom  to  conduct  the  nation  to  peace 
and  unity  again." 

INDIANA. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Indiana,  temporarily  resident 
in  Washington,  and  others  visiting  the  capital  of  the  nation, 
Hon.  John  P.  Usher  was  chosen  chairman,  and  D.  P.  Hollo- 
way,  secretary. 

The  chairman  briefly  announced  the  object  of  the  meeting. 


135 

and  most  feelingly  alluded  to  the  life  and  character  of  our  late 
Chief  Magistrate. 

Hon.  W.  T.  Otto  offered  the  following  resolutions,  which 
were  unanimously  adopted: 

Whereas  Abraham  Lincoln  was  especially  dear  to  the  people  of  Indiana, 
where  he  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  boyish  and  youthful  days,  and  where  the 
remains  of  his  honored  mother  rest,  it  is  deemed  fit  that  we,  the  citizens  of  In- 
diana now  in  Washington,  shall  in  some  appropriate  form  contribute  our  offer- 
ing of  veneration  to  his  memory ;  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  we  regard  the  death  of  the  late  President  of  the  United  States 
as  one  of  the  severest  chastisements  which  has  been  inflicted  upon  our  country. 
In  this  calamity  we  recognize  the  hand  of  the  Great  Chastiser,  and  reverently, 
but  with  hearts  full  of  sorrow,  submit  to  His  infallible  and  righteous  decrees. 

Resolved,  That  the  exalted  public  and  private  character  of  the  late  President, 
his  freedom  from  selfish  ambition,  his  fear  of  God,  his  love  of  country,  his  devo- 
tion to  the  duties  of  the  high  trusts  confided  to  him  in  this  arduous  crisis,  the 
patience,  forecast,  unsurpassed  wisdom,  and  magnanimity  which  he  evinced  in 
the  discharge  of  them,  will  cause  his  memory  to  be  cherished  with  love  and 
reverence  by  all  loyal  Americans  until  the  end  of  time. 

Resolved,  That  the  chairman  of  this  meeting  be  requested  to  transmit  a  copy 
of  the  foregoing  resolutions  to  the  bereaved  family  of  the  late  President,  with 
the  assurance  of  the  profound  sympathy  of  the  people  of  Indiana,  in  the  recent 
afflictive  dispensation  of  Providence. 

The  following  request  to  the  citizens  of  Indiana  was  issued 
by  Governor  Morton: 

State  of  Indiana,  Executive  Depaetment, 
Indianapolis,  April  15, 1865. 
To  the  Citizens  of  Indiana : 

The  mournful  intelligence  has  been  received  that  the  President,  Abraham 

Lincoln,  died  this  morning,  from-  a  wound  inflicted  by  the  hands  of  an  assassin 

last  night.     A  great  and  good  man  has  fallen,  and  the  country  has  lost  its 

beloved  and  patriotic  Chief  Magistrate,  in  the  hour  of  her  greatest  need.     I 

therefore  request  the  citizens  of  Indianapolis,  in  testimony  of  their  profound 

sorrow,  to  close  their  places  of  business  and  assemble  in  the  State  House  Square 

at  12  o'clock,  noon,  to-day,  to  give  expression  to  their  sentiments  over  this  great 

national  calamity. 

J.  P.  MORTON, 

OovemoT  of  Indiaria, 
ILLINOIS. 

The  citizens  of  Illinois  met  17th  April  at  the  National  Ho- 
tel, for  the  further  consideration  of  arrangements  appertain- 
ing to  the  funeral  of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 


136 

Governor  Yates,  chairman,  stated  tliat  it  would  be  in  order 
for  the  several  committees  to  report,  if  prepared  to  do  so. 

General  Isliam  N.  Haynie,  from  the  committee  upon  resolu- 
tions, submitted  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions  for 
consideration,  which  were  adopted  by  the  meeting : 

"Whereas  the  nation  has  been  called  by  the  mysterious  decree  of  an  over- 
ruling Providence  to  mourn  the  loss  of  the  first  magistrate  of  the  republic,  at 
a  period  when  the  best  and  brightest  hopes  of  the  people  were  centred  upon 
him,  and  at  the  moment  when  his  long  and  faithful  services  had  culminated  in 
complete  triumph ;  and  whereas  we,  the  citizens  of  Illinois,  his  former  friends 
and  neighbors,  present  in  the  city  of  Washington,  profoundly  impressed  with 
this  irreparable  loss  to  us,  to  the  State  of  Illinois,  to  the  nation,  and  to  the 
world,  desire  to  render  just  tribute  to  his  great  qualities  and  services  ;  there- 
fore, 

Resolved,  Tliat  we  deplore,  with  inexpressible  sorrow  and  anguish,  this  great 
calamity,  which  has,  at  the  same  moment,  robbed  us  of  the  kindest  and  truest 
friend,  our  great  State  of  its  greatest  citizen,  the  republic  of  its  beloved  and  hon- 
ored Chief  Magistrate,  the  world  of  one  of  the  ablest  advocates  of  humanity 
and  brightest  ornaments  of  the  age — to  whose  memory,  virtues,  and  great  qual- 
ities eulogy  can  never  do  more  than  justice. 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  family  of  the  deceased  President  our  sympa- 
thy and  kindest  condolence  in  this  their  hour  of  greatest  sorrow  and  deepest 
gloom  ;  and  while  we  fully  realize  that  all  must  bow  in  humble  submission  to 
this  overwhelming  dispensation,  yet  we  trust  that  they  (like  the  great  nation 
that  delights  to  honor  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  dead)  may  find  consolation 
in  the  realization  that  this  great  sacrifice  will  more  sacredly  consecrate  the 
cause  to  which  he  was  devoted,  securing  to  his  name  imperishable  renown,  to 
his  countrymen  perpetual  liberty,  and  to  his  country  perpetual  unity. 

Resolved,  That  our  thanks  are  due,  and  are  hereby  heartily  tendered,  to  the 
Federal  aulliorities  for  their  cordial  co-operation  and  concurrence  with  the  citi- 
zens of  Illinois  in  securing  to  that  State  the  remains  of  the  citizen  she  delighted 
to  honor  and  the  President  she  gave  to  the  nation;  and  that  we  will  receive  as 
a  sacred  trust  all  that  is  left  of  the  illustrious  dead,  to  be  deposited  among  the 
people  wlio  first  learned  to  love  him  because  they  knew  him  to  be  great  in 
goodness  ami  good  in  greatness. 

Resolved,  Tliat  we  unite  in  tendering  to  the  Honorable  William  II.  Seward 
our  heartfelt  sympathy  for  his  afSiction,  and  profound  thankfulness  to  God  for 
his  escape  from  the  assassin's  knife,  and  we  trust  he  may  speedily  be  restored 
to  health  and  t.lie  discharge  of  his  high  duties  to  the  republic. 

Resolved,  Tliat  copies  of  these  resolutions  and  the  proceedings  of  this  meet- 
ing be  made  and  delivered  to  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  the  public  press  of  tlie  city, 
and  their  publication  requested. 

Resolved,  by  Ihe  cUizcns  of  Illinois  here  aiseinblcd,  That  we  deem  it  proper 
and  just  to  llie  Slate  of  Illinois  that  the  remains  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  late 
President  of  the  United  Stales,  now  deceased,  shall  be  interred  at  the  capital 


137 

of  the  State  so  long  his  residence ;  and  that  the  committee  appointed  hy  this 
meeting  to  wait  upon  his  family  and  relatives  be  respectfully  requested  to  pre- 
sent this  resolution  to  them,  and  request  their  concurrence  therein. 

Upon  motion  of  Hon.  0.  H.  Browning,  it  was 

Resolved,  That  in  addition  to  the  usual  mourning  badge  of  crape  worn  upon 
the  arm,  the  citizens  of  Illinois  adopt  full  mourning  by  wearing  crape  upon 
their  hats  for  the  term  of  sixty  days, 

KENTUCKY. 

The  citizens  of  Kentucky  in  Washington  assembled  at  Wil- 
lards'  Hotel,  April  16,  1865,  and  organized  by  appointing  the 
Hon.  Green  Clay  Smith,  president,  and  James  Miller,  Esq., 
secretary. 

On  motion,  it  was  voted  to  appoint  a  committee  of  five  on 
resolutions. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Robert  McMurdy,  Col.  A.  H.  Markland,  Col. 
C.  D.  Pennebaker,  Captain  J.  P.  Martin,  and  Dr.  N.  S.  Moore 
were  appointed  said  committee. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  McMurdy,  chairman  of  the  committee,  reported 
the  following  resolutions  ;   which  were  unanimously  adopted  : 

Resolved,  That,  in  common  with  the  whole  country,  we  deplore  the  calamity 
which  has  deprived  the  nation  of  its  eminently  wise,  kind,  and  judicious  head. 
As  Kentuckians  we  feel  deeply  the  loss  to  our  citizens  of  one  who,  born  on  their 
soil,  acquainted  with  their  people,  sympathizing  with  the  embarrassments,  an- 
noyances, and  sufferings  of  the  loyal  community,  was  eminently  fitted  to  tem- 
per severity  with  mercy;  and  while  administering  the  laws  so  as  to  secure  their 
supremacy,  yet  could  win  the  erring  as  a  kind  and  patient  father.  No  com- 
monwealth will  so  sadly  feel  this  afflictive  dispensation  as  that  of  Kentucky. 

Resolved,  That  we  heartily  condole  with  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  her  household,  in 
their  affliction  and  grief,  assuring  the  esteemed  wife  of  our  late  honored  Presi- 
dent (like  him,  a  native  of  Kentucky)  of  our  sympathy,  and  that  of  every  loyal 
Kentuckian.  We  pray  that  she  may  be  endued  with  patience  in  her  distress, 
and  with  resignation  to  God's  blessed  will,  and  be  comforted  with  a  sense  of 
his  goodness  ;  and  feeling  that,  as  lie  gave  his  mind  and  heart  to  his  country, 
so  also  shall  his  very  life  be  given  up,  if  thereby  liberty  and  union  may  be  pre- 
served, an<l  these  blessings  banded  down  to  posterity,  his  name  being  chief  in 
the  patriotic  martyrology  of  our  country. 

IOWA. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Iowa,  in  the  public  parlor  of 
the  National  Hotel,  on  the  15th  April,  for  expression  of  their 


138 

sorrow  in  \\ew  of  the  death  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  na- 
tion, Governor  Stone  presided,  and  a  committee,  appointed  to 
prepare  resolutions  expressive  of  the  sense  of  the  meeting,  re- 
ported the  following,  which  were  unanimously  adopted  : 

Whereas  in  this  hour  of  national  grief,  while  the  country  mourns  the  loss  of 
her  honored  and  loved  Chief  Magistrate,  it  becomes  us,  citizens  of  the  State  of 
Iowa,  to  express  our  sorrow  at  this  sad  and  irreparable  calamity  :  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  as  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  as  a  fit- 
ting expression  of  the  sense  of  this  meeting,  the  following  proclamation  of  his 
excellency  the  Governor  of  Iowa,  meeting  with  our  unqualified  endorsement 
and  approval,  be  embodied  in  these  resolutions : 

WASHiKaiON  City,  April  15, 1865. 
To  the  People  of  Iowa  : 

The  Federal  city  is  shrouded  in  mourning.  In  the  midst  of  joy  and  triumph 
the  nation  is  suddenly  called  to  deplore  the  loss  of  its  greatest  and  truest  friend, 
foully  murdered  by  a  traitor  hand.  Stricken  down  in  the  fulness  of  life,  and 
when  strongest  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  an  honest  man,  an  excellent  patriot,  the  friend  of  the  poor  and 
the  oppressed,  the  deliverer  of  his  country,  has  been  gathered  to  a  martyr's  grave. 

That  the  people  of  Iowa  who  admired  and  loved  the  fallen  patriot,  and  so 
nobly  sustained  the  holy  cause  he  represented,  may  appropriately  testify  their 
sorrow  over  this  national  calamity,  I  invite  them  to  assemble  in  their  respective 
places  of  worship  on  Thursday,  the  27th  day  of  April,  at  10  o'clock  A.  M.,  for 
humiliation  and  prayer  to  Almighty  God.  And  I  request  that  travel  within 
the  State  and  all  other  secular  employment  be  totally  suspended  on  that  day, 
and  that  all  public  offices  be  draped  in  mourning  for  the  period  of  thirty  days. 

W.  M.  STONE, 

Oovemor. 

Resolved,  That  while  a  nation  mourns  the  death  of  its  Chief  Executive,  the 
oppressed  their  deliverer,  and  the  friends  of  humanity  everywhere  their  advocate, 
yet  his  family  mourns  a  husband  and  a  father,  and  to  them  in  this  hour  of  deep 
affliction  we  tender  our  heartfelt  sympathies  and  condolence. 

Resolved,  That  we  extend  to  the  Hon.  William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State, 
our  earnest  sympathies,  and  our  hopes  that  he  and  the  members  of  his  family 
may  speedily  be  restored  to  health  and  usefulness. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  patriotism,  wisdom,  and  integrity  of  his  Excellency, 
Andrew  Johnson,  who  has  so  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  been  called  to  admin- 
ister the  affairs  of  the  nation,  we  have  implicit  confidence,  and  we  pledge 
him  our  earnest  and  unswerving  support. 

WISCONSIN. 

At  an  informal  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  the  State  of  Wis- 
consin, in  Washington  city,  held  Tuesday  evening,  April  18,  at 


139 

the  rooms  of  the  Wisconsin  State  Agency,  for  the  purpose  of 
expressing  their  profound  sorrow  for  the  national  calamity  that 
has  befallen  us  as  a  people  in  the  death  of  our  lamented  Chief 
Magistrate,  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  assemblage  was  called  to 
order  by  the  Hon.  Bradford  Rixford.  Brigadier  General  E.  S. 
Bragg  was  nominated  chairman,  and  S.  Cadwallader  appointed 
secretary. 

At  the  request  of  the  Chairman,  Hon.  A.  W.  Randall  stated 
the  object  of  the  meeting  to  be  the  expression  of  individual, 
State,  and  national  grief  in  the  loss  of  its  late  President,  and 
proceeded  to  pay  a  handsome  and  well-deserved  tribute  to  his 
memory  as  a  man  and  a  statesman.  It  became  us  to  bow  sub- 
missively to  the  decrees  of  an  all-wise  providence,  and  to 
believe  that  the  nation's  apparent  loss  was  its  real  and  substan- 
tial gain.  He  concluded  by  moving  that  a  committee  of  seven, 
with  Hon.  0.  H.  Waldo,  of  Milwaukie,  as  chairman,  be  ap- 
pointed to  draft  resolutions  expressing  the  sense  of  the  meeting ; 
which  was  adopted. 

The  Chair  then  named  the  following  gentlemen  the  commit- 
tee :  Hon.  0.  H.  Waldo,  of  Milwaukie,  chairman  ;  Ex-Gov. 
A.  W.  Randall,  Hon.  Bradford  Rixford,  Hon.  Alex.  T.  Gray, 
Captain  R.  H.  Chandler,  Colonel  R.  M.  Murphy,  and  Hon. 
William  H.  Watson. 

After  a  short  absence,  the  committee  reported  the  following 
resolutions,  which  were  unanimously  adopted : 

Resolved,  That  as  we  bow  beneath  the  v/eight  of  the  sudden  and  appalling 
affliction  that  hath  fallen  upon  the  nation,  In  the  death,  at  the  hand  of  the 
assassin,  of  our  honored  and  beloved  President,  we  would,  at  the  same  time, 
recognize  in  this  chastisement  the  inscrutable  and  all-wise  providence  of  the 
Heavenly  Father,  who  doth  not  willingly  afflict. 

Resolved,  That  while  we  cannot  refrain  from  mourning  over  that  which,  to 
us,  seeriis  our  irreparable  loss,  we  will  not  forget  to  render  thanks  to  God — thg 
great  Giver — that  in  the  hour  of  the  nation's  extremest  need  He  gave  us,  in 
the  person  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  leader  and  chief  endowed  with  such  gentle 
and  noble  gifts ;  with  such  prudence  and  practical  wisdom ;  such  fidelity,  and 
such  earnest,  patriotic  devotion,  coupled  with  such  simple,  transparent  sincerity ; 
such  high  sense  of  justice  and  truth,  and  such  steadfastness  and  courage,  coupled 
with  such  gentleness,  forbearance,  and  mercy  to  all ;  a  man  never  cast  down  or 
dismayed  in  the  hour  of  threatened  disaster  and  defeat,  and  never  exultant  or 
boastful  in  the  hour  of  victory ;  a  man  who,  assuming  the  reins  of  government 
at  his  first  inauguration  at  a  period  of  deepest  gloom,  when  traitors  were  trium- 


140 

pliant,  and  there  was  present  no  visible  hand  to  help,  yet  stood  firm  and  yielded 
no  whit  of  the  nation's  honor  or  the  nation's  right;  and  who,  at  his  second 
inauguration,  after  four  years  of  dreadful  struggle,  and  in  view  of  the  moment 
of  final  and  glorious  triumph,  indulged  in  no  boast,  hut  in  the  presence  of  the 
throng  of  assembled  freemen  was  content  to  utter  the  gentle  and  heartfelt 
appeal,  "  With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the 
right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are 
in;  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the 
battle,  and  for  his  widow  and  orphan;  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish 
a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations; "  for  such  a  man 
at  such  a  time  we  thank  God. 

Resolved,  That  we  sincerely  condole  with  the  bereaved  wife  and  children  of 
the  deceased  President,  and  we  fervently  trust  and  pray  that  He — the  all- 
wise — who  hath  first  blest  them  with,  and  hath  now  bereft  them  of  so  gentle 
and  noble  a  husband  and  father,  will  heal  their  wounds,  and  guide  and  shield 
them  through  many  years  of  peace  and  happiness,  in  the  shadow  of  the  great 
and  beloved  name  of  the  earthly  protector  whom  they  have  lost. 

Resolved,  That  we  are  not  unmindful  of  the  weight  of  the  burden  of  respon- 
sibility and  care  so  suddenly  cast  upon  him  who  succeeds  to  the  high  trust  until 
now  lield  by  the  deceased  President ;  and  while  we  grieve  at  our  present  bereave- 
ment we  cannot  but  regard  it  as  a  new  proof  of  the  Divine  favor,  that  he  who 
BO  unexpectedly  enters  upon  the  duties  of  that  trust  has  given  such  ground  of 
confidence  in  his  fidelity,  ability,  and  patriotism,  and  that  we  are  so  fully 
assured  that  he  will  receive  the  cordial,  earnest,  and  undivided  support  of  all 
good  men  and  of  all  patriots. 

KANSAS. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Kansas  in  Washington  city, 
held  at  the  rooms  of  the  Hon.  Sidney  Clarke,  April  17,  1865, 
Hon.  Sidney  Clarke  was  chosen  chairman,  and  H.  C.  Fields, 
Esq.,  secretary. 

The  following  was  adopted  as  expressing  the  sentiments  of 
the  meeting  : 

An  appalling  national  calamity  has  occurred.  The  country  is  overwhelmed 
with  profound  grief.  The  first  .citizen  of  the  Piepublic,  its  constitutional  and 
beloved  Chief  Magistrate,  has  been  assassinated  by  the  spirit  of  the  slavehold- 
ers' rebellion.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  friend  of  Union  and  liberty  when 
slavery  first  developed  its  treason  on  the  soil  of  Kansas.  He  has  been  doubly 
true  in  the  great  crisis  of  the  nation,  and  he  died  for  the  Union,  for  liberty,  for 
mankind. 

We,  the  citizens  of  Kansas,  now  in  Washington,  representing  the  united 
voice  of  our  State,  mourn  his  irreparable  loss,  and  bow  in  reverential  submis- 
sion to  this  inscrutable  providence  of  Almighty  God. 

We  pledge  anew  our  devotion  to  the  country  and  to  freedom,  and  will  never 


141 

cease  our  efforts  till  the  conspirators  against  the  national  life  are  visited  with 
that  condign  punishment  which  justice  demands. 

MISSOURI. 

At  a  meeting  of  loyal  Missourians  held  to  express  their  sen- 
timents on  the  death  of  President  Lincoln,  Edmund  Flagg  was 
called  to  the  chair,  and  H.  Jones  appointed  secretary. 

A.  W.  Scharit,  G.  W.  McKean,  and  E.  W.  Wallace,  as  a 
committee  for  that  purpose,  reported  the  following  resolutions, 
which  were  unanimously  adopted  : 

Resolved,  That  with  all  good  and  loyal  men  of  this  nation,  and  friends  of 
freedom  throughout  the  world,  we  would  join  in  sorrow  and  lamentations  at 
the,  to  us,  untimely  death  of  our  beloved  Chief  Magistrate,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  tender  to  his  bereaved  family  our  most  sincere  sympathy  and  condolence. 

Resolved,  That  in  token  of  our  profound  respect  we  will  wear  the  usual  badge 
of  mourning  for  sixty  days,  and  attend  the  public  obsequies  with  the  respective 
departments  with  which  we  are  attached,  or  in  company  with  such  other  organ- 
izations as  we  may  severally  deem  most  proper. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  wisdom  and  patriotism  of  Andrew  Johnson,  who  has 
by  an  inscrutable  Providence  been  called  to  guide  and  govern  this  nation  at 
the  present  crisis,  we  have  entire  confidence,  and  accept  his  record  in  the  past 
as  an  assurance  for  the  future,  and  we  cordially  tender  him  our  earnest  support. 

MEETING   OF    CITIZENS   FROM  THE   PACIFIC    COAST. 

The  citizens  from  the  Pacific  coast  met  at  Senator  Nye's 
room,  at  Willards'  Hotel,  on  the  18th  of  April,  at  eleven  o'clock 
A.  M. 

On  motion  of  Senator  Nye,  Senator  McDougall  was  called 
to  the  chair,  and  A.  G.  Henry  appointed  secretary. 

Senator  Williams,  of  Oregon  ;  Senator  Stewart,  of  Nevada  ; 
A.  G.  Henry,  of  Washington  Territory  ;  Hon.  Thompson  Camp- 
bell, of  California;  and  the  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Wallace,  of  Idaho 
Territory,  were  appointed  a  committee  to  report  resolutions 
expressive  of  the  sense  of  the  meeting.  On  motion,  the  Chair- 
man was  added  to  the  committee.  After  retiring  for  a  few 
moments,  they  returned  and  reported  the  following,  by  their 
chairman,  Senator  Williams,  which  were  unanimously  adopted : 

Resolved,  That  words  are  too  feeble  to  express  our  horror  and  indignation  at 
the  unparalleled  and  atrocious  crimes  committed  in  this  city,  on  the  14th  inst., 


142 

by  the  murderous  assault  upon  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  assassination  of 
the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation. 

Resolved,  That  while  we  mourn  the  untimely  loss  of  President  Lincoln,  "we 
also  rejoice  and  thank  God  for  the  recent  great  and  decisive  victories  of  our  na- 
tional arms,  and  hope  and  trust  that  these  victories  will  be  so  used  and  im- 
proved that  the  infernal  spirit  that  has  characterized  the  present  slaveholders' 
rebellion — a  spirit  that  results  in  the  starvation  of  prisoners  of  war  in  loath- 
some dungeons ;  that  seeks  the  indiscriminate  slaughter  of  men,  women,  and 
children  by  arson ;  that  has  imbrued  its  hands  in  the  blood  of  an  aged 
and  venerated  citizen  and  oiEcer  of  the  Republic  while  prostrate  and  helpless 
on  a  bed  of  sickness  ;  that  has  murdered  the  head  of  the  nation,  by  shooting 
him  in  the  most  brutal  and  cowardly  manner  in  the  back  ;  that  tliis  fiendish 
spirit  may  be  effectually  and  forever  crushed,  and  a  proper  respect  for  labor, 
law,  and  justice  be  restored  to  the  country. 

Resolved,  That  when  we  see  acts  of  magnanimity  and  mercy  requited  by 
deeds  of  blood  and  violence,  we  are  forcibly  reminded  of  the  value  of  that  stern 
and  inflexible  justice  which  prompted  a  Roman  father  to  condemn  his  own  son 
to  death  for  violating  the  laws  of  his  country. 

Resolved,  That  President  Lincoln,  by  his  private  virtues,  his  unsullied  pa- 
triotism, his  wise  and  successful  statesmanship,  has  enshrined  his  memory  in  the 
hearts  of  the  American  people,  and  that  his  name  will  be  deservedly  inscribed 
upon  the  highest  pinnacle  of  our  country's  fame,  within  the  very  halo  of  glory 
that  surrounds  the  name  of  Washington. 

Resolved,  That  confiding  in  the  patriotism  and  capacity  of  President  John- 
eon,  we  pledge  "  our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  sacred  honors"  to  sustain  his 
administration  to  the  entire  and  perfect  completion  of  that  work  which  has  been 
consecrated  by  the  labors  and  blood  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  other  mar- 
tyred dead  of  this  war. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  presented  to  the  bereaved  and 
afflicted  family  of  our  late  lamented  President,  to  whom  we  tender  our  heartfelt 
sympathies,  and  commend  them  to  the  kind  offices  of  the  nation,  and  the  pro- 
tecting care  of  the  God  of  the  widow  and  the  fatherless. 


iN   CALIFORNIA. 


San  Feahcisco, 
Thursday,  April  20,  1865. 
The  funeral  services  in  honor  of  the  late  President  in  this  city  yesterday  were 
the  grandest  ever  witnessed  on  the  Pacific  coast.  The  procession,  three  miles 
long,  contained  15,000  people.  Business  was  entirely  suspended.  Every  house 
was  draped  with  emblems  of  mourning.  The  utmost  quiet  and  decorum  pre- 
vailed. 

The  obsequies  were  observed  in  every  town  in  the  State,  and  in  the  princpal 
towns  in  Nevada. 


« 


143 


IN  DENVER,   COLORADO. 

Denver,  Wednesday,  April  19,  1865. 

Since  the  death  of  President  Lincoln  all  business  in  the  city  has  been  sus- 
pended. Public  buildings,  stores,  and  private  residences  are  all  draped  in  ap- 
propriate emblems  of  mourning. 

The  funeral  ceremonies  to-day  were  attended  by  a  larger  concourse  of  people 
that  ever  before  assembled  here.  The  military  and  civil  officers  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  Territory,  together  with  all  the  religious  orders,  were  fully  reore- 
eented. 


TRIBUTES  OF  THE  COURTS  AND  CIVIC 

BODIES. 


THE  UNITED   STATES   COURT  OP   CLAIMS. 

The  death  of  President  Lincoln  was  announced  on  the  15th 
of  May,  by  Mr.  Weed,  the  Assistant  Solicitor,  in  the  following 
terms ; 

Mat  it  please  tour  honors:  Since  this  court  adjourned  in  March  last,  and 
ordered  a  recess  until  the  present  time,  an  event  has  occurred  which  has  clad 
the  whole  land  in  mourning,  and  to-day  we  weep  at  the  tomb  of  him  upon 
whom  the  people  had  a  second  time  constitutionally  conferred  the  highest  office 
in  their  gift.  To-day,  all  that  was  earthly  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  aflt=i  aaving 
been  borne  nearly  across  the  continent,  followed  by  the  nation  in  sadness  and 
grief,  is  to  be  committed  to  its  final  resting-place  in  that  State  whose  idol  ha 
was,  and  who  gave  him  to  the  nation,  that  Union,  in  that  divine  purpose  and 
Bpirit  in  which  it  came  to  us  from  our  fathers,  might  be  saved.  It  is  meet  that, 
when  the  nation  is  in  mourning,  the  busy  pursuits  of  men  be  laid  aside.  Even 
justice  may  wait  another  day.  When  a  great  sorrow  smites  a  man,  the  world 
goes  on  in  the  old  way,  heedless  of  his  pain;  but  to-day  the  nation  is  smitten, 
and  there  is  mourning  everywhere.  Not  only  here,  but  reaching  across  the 
continent,  you  find  everywhere  its  fitting  emblems,  speaking  more  eloquently 
than  words  of  the  deep  personal  and  public  grief  of  a  whole  people.  What 
can  I  say  of  this  great  and  good  man  ?  He  has  no  need  of  eulogy,  for  his  deeds 
will  speak  of  his  wisdom,  his  purity,  and  his  greatness,  long  after  those  who 
loved  him  so  well  shall  speak  of  him  to-day. 

I  chanced  to  bo  standing  beside  our  lamented  President  when  he  made  his 
farewell  speech  to  his  old  friends  and  neighbors  who  had  gathered  to  speak 
some  kindly  words  of  confidence  and  hope  to  him,  upon  his  departure  from 
among  them  to  assume  the  duties  of  the  office  to  which  he  had  been  summoned 
by  the  people.  Speaking  with  unusual  impressiveness,  he  said :  "To-day  I  leave 
you ;  for  how  long  I  know  not.  I  go  to  assume  responsibilities  greater  than 
ever  Washington  knew,  and  unless  the  same  Almighty  arm  that  guided  and 
10  145 


146 

protected  him  shall  sustain  and  direct  me,  I  must  fail!"  We  all  know  with 
what  suhlime  faith  and  reverent  trust  he  held  fast  to  Him  whose  guidance  he 
had  invoked,  and  bravely  he  bore  us  in  perfect  triumph  through  three  dark  and 
terrible  years  of  desolation  and  war,  out  in  the  calm  sunlight  of  returning 
peace.  We  know  when  he  was  reviled  and  traduced  he  reviled  not  again,  but 
quietly  trusted  in  God.  In  the  old  Egyptian  State,  when  a  ruler  died,  procla- 
mation was  made,  and  if  he  had  done  any  wrong  thing,  and  it  could  be  proven 
against  him,  he  was  denied  the  honorable  burial.  I  would  trust  Abraham  Lin- 
coln to  that  test  to-day.  I  would  defy  any  man,  living  or  dead,  to  prove  that 
he  committed  any  sin.  I  may  say  of  him  what  the  world  will  say  of  him,  that 
he  was  a  pure  and  good  man,  and  that  neither  in  his  public  nor  private  life  did 
he  knowingly  do  any  wrong. 

As  a  lawyer  Mr.  Lincoln  was  entitled  to  no  medium  place.  He  breught  to 
the  labors  of  that  profession  but  little  of  the  culture  of  the  schools  ;  he  brought 
rather  that  acuteness  of  intellect,  that  earnestness,  that  power  of  comprehend- 
ing great  principles,  and  of  stating  them  logically  and  briefly,  which  seemed  a 
part  of  his  nature.  In  his  argument  of  legal  questions  he  was  always  concise 
and  clear  in  his  statements,  using  no  useless  or  unmeaning  words.  He  went 
directly  to  the  question  involved,  and  brought  to  its  discussion  the  same  practical 
common  sense  for  which,  as  President,  he  became  so  distinguished.  As  an 
advocate  he  possessed  characteristics  which  at  once  placed  him  at  the  head  ol 
the  profession  in  his  own  State.  How  eloquent  he  was,  only  those  who  have 
listened  to  his  appeals  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed  can  tell.  His  was  the  elo- 
quence which  comes  from  earnestness,  from  sincerity,  and  from  an  honesty  of 
purpose.  No  man  in  Illinois  was  more  a  favorite  with  the  bar  than  he  ;  none 
mourn  his  loss  with  deeper  grief  than  those  who  knew  him  intimately  and 
well  in  their  every-day  association  with  him,  and  the  earnest  labors  of  his 
profession. 

To-day  a  grateful  but  mournful  people  will  lay  him  tenderly  in  the  hosom 
of  his  adopted  State,  remembering  that  he  was  faithless  to  no  trust,  false  to  no 
principle ;  and  future  generations  will  say  of  him,  that  he  was  unselfish  and 
pure  even  as  Washington  was.    What  need  they  say  more  than  that  ? 

As  a  fitting  indication  of  our  sense  of  the  great  loss  the  country  has  sustained, 
I  therefore  move  that  this  court  adjourn  until  the  first  Monday  in  October 
next. 

Chief  Justice  Casey  responded  as  follows  : 

The  death  of  our  honored  and  beloved  Chief  Magistrate,  by  the  hands  of  trea- 
son and  violence,  has  profoundly  affected  and  stirred  the  minds  and  feelings  ol 
all  loyal  persons  in  this  country,  and  of  Christian  people  throughout  the  world. 
No  man  ever  more  fully  possessed  the  hearts  and  affections  of  this  nation. 
Sprung  from  the  ranks  of  the  people,  he  thoroughly  understood  and  sympa- 
thized with  them,  and  they  accorded  him  not  only  their  fullest  confidence,  but 
their  warmest  love. 

Looking  back  over  the  vicissitudes  and  perils  of  the  past  four  years,  every 
patriotic  heart  is  filled  with  gratitude  to  the  Giver  of  all  geod,  for  having 


147 

raised  up  and  placed  in  power  so  great  and  good  a  ma.n  as  Abraham  Linroln, 
at  such  a  crisis.  A  man  so  pure  and  unselfish  in  his  purposes,  so  sagacious 
and  wise  in  his  plans,  so  firm  and  determined  in  the  right,  so  lofty  in  his  pa- 
triotism, so  kind  and  forgiving  in  his  temper,  so  generous  and  magnanimous 
in  his  disposition,  so  entirely  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  and  the  inter- 
ests of  freedom.  He  lived  long  enough  to  see,  as  the  fruits  of  his  great  labors, 
and  of  his  unfaltering  faith  in  God's  providence  and  the  triumph  of  the  right, 
the  most  wicked  and  gigantic  rebellion  the  world  ever  saw  effectually  crushed, 
and  the  bright  dawn  of  an  effulgent  future  for  the  country  and  institutions  he 
served  so  faithfully  and  loved  so  well,  and  the  complete  enfranchisement  of 
a  degraded  and  enslaved  race. 

In  the  accomplishment  of  such  great  objects,  the  measure  of  his  fame,  as  a 
great  and  enlightened  Christian  statesman,  was  full  and  complete ;  and  it 
needed  but  to  invest  his  memory  with  the  sacredness  of  martyrdom  to  enshrine 
him  in  the  hearts  of  all  good  men,  everywhere,  in  all  coming  time. 

That  one  so  good  and  great  should  have  belonged  to  and  illustrated  by  his 
talents  and  adorned  by  his  high  virtues  the  profession  to  which  we  belong  is 
matter  of  just  pride  to  every  lawyer  and  judicial  functionary  in  the  nation, 
and  is  a  high  tribute  to  the  profession  which  can  produce  and  foster  such  high 
moral  and  intellectual  excellence. 

We  direct  these  proceedings  to  be  entered  upon  our  minutes,  and,  as  a  fur- 
ther mark  of  our  profound  respect  for  his  memory,  and  unaffected  sorrow  for 
his  death,  this  court  will  now  adjourn. 

Ordered,  That  the  court  be  adjourned  to  Tuesday,  the  second  day  of  October 
next,  at  12  o'clock,  M. 

EXPRESSIONS   OP  SORROW  BY  THE  LEVY  COURT   OP  THE   COUNTY 

OF   WASHINGTON. 

Levy  Couet  of  WASHiirGTOiT  CouifTT,' 

April  17,  1865. 

At  a  meeting  of  this  court,  held  this  day,  the  following  reso- 
lutions were  adopted  : 

On  behalf  of  the  people  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  outside  of  the  cities  of 
Washington  and  Georgetown,  this  court  mingles  with  the  wailing  voice  of  the 
nation  its  expression  of  profound  sorrow  for  the  death,  by  the  hand  of  an  as- 
sassin, of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  whose  wisdom  and  moderation 
have  won  the  admiration  of  the  civilized  world ;  whose  humanity.  Christian 
meekness,  entire  reliance  upon  the  Great  Ruler  of  the  Universe  ;  whose  ardent 
love  of  his  country  and  unwearied  labor  in  the  public  service,  have  enshrined 
nim  in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people,  and  whose  successful  pilotage  of  the 
nation  through  scenes  and  difficulties  the  most  trying  has  made  him  illustrious. 

While  we  mourn  the  loss  of  the  "  Peeseever  of  the  Union,"  we  thank  God 
that  he  was  raised  up  for  the  great  work  he  has  so  well  performed,  and  thp.t  he 
Was  permitted  to  behold  the  breaking  up  of  the  rebellion,  the  restoration  of 


148 

the  stars  aad  stripes  over  all  the  national  forts  from  which  it  was  torn  down 
by  the  haads  of  traitors  four  years  ago,  and  the  coming  of  that  glorious  day 
that  is  to  witness  the  whole  American  people  again  united  under  the  folds  of 
the  time-honored  "  flag  of  the  free." 

Resolved,  That  we  will,  in  a  body,  with  the  officers  of  this  court,  join  in  the 
ceremony  of  paying  funeral  honors  to  the  deceased,  and  will  wear  crape  on  the 
left  arm  for  thirty  days. 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  the  condolences  of  sorrowful  hearts  to  the  family 
of  the  deceased,  and  that  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  transmitted  to  them. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  preservation  of  the  life  of  our  beloved  and  honored 
statesman,  the  Secretary  of  State,  from  the  efforts  of  the  base  assassin,  we  recog- 
nize the  hand  of  Providence,  and  we  tender  to  him  and  his  distressed  family 
our  heartfelt  sympathy,  and  hope  that  he  and  they  may  be  speedily  restored  to 
health,  and  that  his  valuable  services  to  the  nation  may  be  continued. 

Resolved,  That  we  sympathize  with  the  President,  Hon.  Andrew  Johnson, 
upon  the  sudden  necessity  of  his  assuming  the  responsible  duties  assigned  him 
by  the  American  people  and  the  Constitution  in  this  great  emergency,  and 
assure  him  of  our  generous  and  unqualified  support  in  his  new  and  trying  posi- 
tion. 

N.  SARGENT, 
President  of  the  Levy  Court. 

Teste: 

Nicholas  Callan,  Clerk. 

MEETING  OP  THE  BAR  AND  OF  THE  GRAND  JURY. 

The  members  of  the  bar  and  of  the  grand  jury  met  in  the 
Criminal  Court  room,  City  Hall. 

On  motion,  Hon.  Justice  Andrew  Wylie,  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  District,  presided,  and  Mr.  E.  J.  Middleton,  clerk 
of  the  court,  was  appointed  secretary. 

A  committee,  consisting  of  E.  C.  Carrington,  Esq.,  Jos.  H. 
Bradley,  Esq.,  and  Philip  R.  Fendall,  Esq.,  on  the  part  of  the 
bar,  and  Messrs.  George  A.  Bohrer,  James  Y.  Davis,  and 
Henry  Barron,  on  the  part  of  the  grand  jury,  were  appointed 
to  draft  suitable  resolutions.  The  committee  retired,  and  sub- 
sequently appeared,  and  through  their  chairman,  Mr.  Carring- 
ton, reported  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions  :  ^ 

A  heavy  pall  overhangs  the  land,  and  all  hearts  are  united  in  the  holy 
brotherhood  of  sorrow.  The  President  of  the  United  States,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
is  dead — stricken  down,  not  by  accident  or  disease,  but  by  an  awful  crime  that 
has  no  parallel  in  the  annals  of  the  country. 

Whilst  the  death  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  is  always  a  public  calamity,  on  this 
occa.siou  the  nation  mourns  the  irreparable  loss  of  one  whose  labors,  rendered 


149 

illustrious  in  war,  were  about  to  be  crowned  by  the  glory  of  diffusing  the 
blessed  rays  of  peace  over  a  reunited  land.  Adding  our  voices  to  the  wail  of 
lamentation  that  swells  from  the  nation,  without  distinction  of  class  or  party, 
and  with  profound  abhorrence  of  the  atrocious  deed,  and  a  deep  sense  of  shame 
for  the  stain  upon  the  American  character  and  name  :  therefore. 
Be  it  resolved  hy  this  meeting, 

1.  That  we  will  in  a  body  join  in  the  ceremony  of  paying  funeral  honors  to 
the  deceased,  and  will  wear  the  usual  emblem  of  mourning  for  sixty  days. 

2.  That  we  tender  an  assurance  of  respectful  and  heartfelt  sympathy  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased. 

3.  That  on  this  solemn  occasion  we  renew  our  pledge  of  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  our  country,  to  which  the  best  energies  of  our  martyred  President  were 
devoted  during  his  eventful  and  trying  administration,  humbly  invoking  the 
blessing  of  Almighty  God. 

CITY   COUNCIL   OP  WASHINGTON,   D.   C. 

Mayor's  Offick,  April  15,  1865. 
To  the  Boards  of  Aldermen  and  Common  Council: 

Gentlemen  :  The  moment  of  our  country's  greatest  glory  and  joy  has  most 
suddenly  alternated  into  its  hour  of  saddest  sorrow.  The  nation's  greatest  and 
best  citizen  fell  by  the  hands  of  an  assassin  at  Ford's  Theatre,  in  this  city,  about 
the  hour  of  10  o'clock  last  night. 

I  have  summoned  you  together  to  give  shape  and  expression  to  the  irrepres- 
sible grief  of  this  community,  and  adopt  measures  befitting  an  event  which 
will  fill  the  world  with  horror  and  gloom. 

EICHARD  WALLACE, 

Mayor. 

Mr.  Utermehle  then  moved  the  appointment  of  a  committee 
of  seven — three  from  the  Board  of  Aldermen  and  four  from  the 
lower  Board — to  draft  resolutions  suitable  to  the  melancholy 
occasion  ;  which  was  adopted  ;  and  Messrs.  Utermehle,  Lloyd, 
and  Barr  were  appointed  on  the  part  of  the  Board. 

The  committee  retired,  and  after  conference  with  the  com- 
mittee on  the  part  of  the  Common  Council,  reported  the  fol- 
lowing preamble  and  resolutions  ;  which  were  unanimously 
adopted  : 

Whereas  our  late  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  has  fallen  beneath  the  blow  ol 
a  cowardly  assassin,  stricken  down  at  a  period  when  his  magnanimity  and  exalted 
statesmanship  had  raised  the  country  from  the  depression  caused  by  four  years 
of  bloody  war  to  a  period  from  which  the  smiling  path  of  peace  and  plenty 
was  clearly  brought  to  view.  He  has  fallen,  and  the  tears  of  millions  of  free- 
born  Americans  water  his  grave.    And  while  the  wail  of  desolation  goes  up 


150 

from  all  quarters  of  our  land,  we,  the  people  of  the  city  of  Washington,  who 
know  best  his  many  virtues,  private  as  well  as  public,  would  indicate  the  high 
esteem  in  which  they  have  ever  held  him,  the  deep  regret  which  they  feel  for 
his  irreparable  loss,  and  the  horror  and  detestation  entertained  by  them  for  the 
instigators  of  his  death.  Of  him  truly  it  may  be  said  that  in  his  death  the  mis- 
guided people  of  the  South  have  lost  their  best  friend,  the  American  Union  its 
firmest  supporter,  and  liberty  its  most  undaunted  champion  :  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  country  has  lost  a  great 
and  good  man,  one  prompted  by  the  purest  and  best  motives,  one  ever  solicit- 
ous for  the  best  interest  of  the  whole  American  people,  and  whose  whole  life 
has  been  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  liberty  and  union. 

Resolved,  That  while  words  but  feebly  express  our  deep  sorrow,  we  tender  to 
the  American  nation  and  his  grief-stricken  family  our  sympathy  in  this  their 
hour  of  great  bereavement,  and  we  pray  Almighty  God  to  avert  from  this  na- 
tion further  calamity,  and  to  sustain  and  comfort  the  sorrowing  widow  and  fa- 
therless children. 

Resolved,  That  the  Mayor  be,  and  he  is  hereby,  requested  to  cause  the  build- 
ings of  the  Corporation  and  the  chambers  of  the  two  Boards  to  be  draped  in 
mourning  for  the  period  of  sixty  days ;  and  further,  as  an  additional  mark  of 
our  respect,  the  members  of  the  two  Boards  wear  the  usual  badge  of  mourning 
for  the  like  period. 

Resolved,  That  the  corporate  authorities  will  attend  the  funeral  obsequies  in 
a  body;  and  that  the  citizens  of  Washington  be,  and  they  are  hereby,  requested 
to  close  their  usual  places  of  business  on  the  day  of  the  funeral,  and  to  unite 
with  us  in  this  last  mark  of  esteem  and  sympathy  ;  and  that  a  joint  committee 
of  seven — three  members  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen  and  four  members  of  the 
board  of  Common  Council — be  appointed  to  make  the  necessary  arrangementa. 

Resolved,  That  the  Mayor  be,  and  he  is  hereby,  requested  to  transmit  a  copy 
«f  these  resolutions  to  the  family  of  our  late  President. 

CITY   COUNCIL   OP   GEOEGETOWN. 

Mayor's  Office,  Georgetown,  D.  C, 

April  17,  1865. 

Gentlemek  :  You  have  been  assembled  to  consider  the  great  national  ca- 
lamity which  has  been  brought  down  upon  us  by  the  assassination  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  and  to  express  yourselves  in  such  a 
manner  as  may  seem  to  j'ou  to  become  the  sad  occasion. 

HENRY  ADDISON,  Mayor. 

Resolved,  by  the  Board  of  Aldermen  and  Board  of  Common  Council  of 
Georgetown,  That  we  have  received  with  a  sensation  of  profound  horror  the 
intelligence  of  the  assassination  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  of 
the  dastardly  attack  upon  the  Secretary  of  State. 

That  whether  regard  be  had  to  the  lofty  station  of  the  victim  or  his  personal 
character  and  virtues,  the  crime  is  to  be  reprobated  as  one  unparalleled  for 
enormity  in  the  history  and  traditions  of  the  republic,  and  is  one  which  shocks 


151 

the  enligMened  spirit  of  the  age,  and  merits  the  unqualified  execration  of  all 
mankind. 

That  in  the  death  of  President  Lincoln  we  deplore  the  loss  of  a  great  and 
good  man,  a  wise,  upright,  and  magnanimous  ruler,  whose  life,  by  the  common 
consent  of  his  adherents  and  opponents,  was,  at  this  crisis,  of  inestimable  value 
to  his  country ;  whose  far-reaching  statesmanship,  proverbial  gentleness  of 
heart,  and  disposition  to  temper  justice  with  mercy,  afforded  the  surest  pledge 
of  the  speedy  extinction  of  the  rebellion,  the  honorable  pacification  of  our 
country,  and  the  restoration  of  fraternal  relations  with  our  erring  brethren  of 
the  South. 

That  we  tender  our  heartfelt  sympathy  to  his  bereaved  family,  and  in  testi- 
mony of  our  sense  of  the  national  bereavement,  the  public  oiEces  and  schools 
of  the  town  be  draped  in  mourning,  and  the  members  and  officers  of  the  Cor- 
poration will  attend  the  funeral  of  the  President  in  a  body,  and  will  wear  crape 
on  the  left  arm  for  thirty  days. 

That  our  heartfelt  sympathy  and  support  are  eminently  due,  and  are  hereby 
tendered,  to  our  present  Chief  Magistrate,  Andrew  Johnson,  in  his  sudden  call 
to  the  discharge  of  the  high  and  important  duties  of  his  office ;  and  we  hereby 
tender  to  him  the  expression  of  our  confidence  in  his  ability  to  discharge  them, 
under  God,  to  the  best  interests  of  the  American  people. 

MEETING   OP   THE   NATIONAL   DEMOCRATIC    ASSOCIATION. 

The  president,  the  Hon.  Charles  Mason,  called  the  meeting 
to  order.  On  motion  of  Hon.  Thomas  B.  Florence,  a  commit- 
tee of  five  "was  chosen  to  draft  resolutions,  viz  :  F.  A.  Aiken, 
John  W.  Clampitt,  D.  C.  Laurence,  W.  J.  Miller,  and  Dr. 
Charles  Allen.  The  following  resolutions  were  presented  and 
adopted  : 

Resolved,  by  the  National  Democratic  Association  of  Washington,  D.  C, 
That,  as  a  body,  we  desire  to  express  our  profound,  sincere,  and  heartfelt  sor- 
row for  the  national  loss  which  we,  in  common  with  our  fellow  countrymen, 
have  met  in  the  death  of  President  Lincoln,  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin. 

Resolved,  That  the  affections  of  the  American  people  were  fast  centring 
around  President  Lincoln  as  an  exemplar  of  an  enlarged  humanity,  and  one 
whose  conciliating  and  patriotic  efforts  in  the  administration  of  public  affairs 
were  about  to  culminate  in  the  restoration  of  peace  to  our  unhappy  country. 

Resolved,  That  in  order  to  vindicate  the  violated  law,  we  pledge  ourselves  to 
use  our  utmost  endeavors  to  ferret  out  and  bring  to  merited  punishment  the 
guilty  perpetrators  of  this  most  unnatural  crime. 

Resolved,  That  the  attempted  assassination  of  Hon.  William  H.  Seward,  Sec- 
retary of  State,  and  of  his  son,  the  Hon.  Frederick  W.  Seward,  meets,  aa  in 


152 

the  case  of  the  President,  with  our  deepest  and  most  unqualified  condemnation, 
trusting  that  the  brutal  assassin  will  be  brought  to  speedy  justice. 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  sorrow-stricken  widow  and  family  of  our 
late  President  our  most  sincere  condolence  in  this  the  hour  of  their  great  be- 
reavement. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Association  be  directed  to  transmit  a 
copy  of  these  resolutions  to  the  family  of  the  deceased. 

MEETING   OP   GERMAN   CITIZENS. 

At  a  large  meeting  of  Germans,  held  at  the  "  Winter  Gar- 
den," Pennsylvania  avenue,  Washington,  of  which  Mr.  Cohn- 
heim,  editor  of  the  "  Columbia,"  was  president,  Dr.  H.  Risler  and 
Geo.  Gambs,  Second  Auditor's  Office,  secretaries,  F.  Muhling- 
haus,  treasurer,  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions,  in- 
troduced by  Mr.  A.  Shucking,  were  unanimously  adopted  : 

Whereas  a  great  calamity  has  befallen  this  nation  in  the  sudden  death  of  the 
President  of  •^he  United  States  : 

Resolved,  That  we  shudder  at  the  deed  which  has  violently  deprived  this  na- 
tion of  its  constitutional  head  by  the  assassin's  hand,  as  one  of  unparalleled 
atrocity,  shocking  to  all  mankind,  and  second  only  to  the  one  commemorated 
in  the  day  of  its  perpetration — "an  offence  most  rank,  that  smells  to  heaven  ;" 
a  crime  so  enormous  that  in  the  presence  of  it  a  moral  faintness  overspreads 
the  land. 

That  this  blow  is  stunning  in  its  nature,  because  aimed  at  the  head  and 
declared  choice  of  a  whole  nation  ;  and,  if  the  voice  of  a  free  and  enlightened 
people  is  the  voice  of  God,  thus  aimed  at  the  God-approved  sacred  head  and 
representative  of  the  sovereignty  of  a  great  people,  an  act  of  diabolical  rebel- 
lion against  God  and  man. 

That  although  dead  in  body,  Abraham  Lincoln,  like  George  Washington,  to- 
day liveth,  and  will  continue  present  with  his  people,  and  in  the  hearts  and 
centiments  of  his  countrymen,  while  he  will  live  immortal  as  a  martyr  in  the 
cause  of  human  freedom  for  all  time  to  come;  his  atrocious  death  will  be  rich 
and  glorious  in  fruits ;  the  sacrifice  of  his  life  and  blood  will  inspire  to  stronger 
and  firmer  purposes,  resolves,  and  action. 

That  we  tender  our  profound  sympathies  to  the  family  of  the  deceased ; 
though  deprived  as  the  nation  itself  is  of  a  father,  their  anguish  can  scarcely 
be  greater  than  that  felt  by  ourselves  and  the  friends  of  liberty  and  constitu- 
tional government,  and  of  rectitude  in  its  rulers,  throughout  the  civilized  world. 

That  the  German  citizens  wiil  individually  and  in  their  various  associate 
organizations  pay  the  last  sad  respect  to  our  late  lamented  President. 

Another  series  of  resolutions,  prepared  by  Dr.  Henry  Risler 


153 

in  tlie  German  language  for  publication  in  the  German  papers 
of  this  country  and  Germany,  were  also  unanimously  adopted. 
In  conclusion,  Colonel  Jos.  Gerhardt  was  selected  to  report 
to  the  chief  marshal. 

MEETING   OP   COLORED    CITIZENS. 

Pursuant  to  notice,  the  colored  citizens  of  Washington  met 
in  the  Fifteenth-street  Presbyterian  church,  on  the  anniversary 
of  the  emancipation  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

The  meeting  was  organized  by  electing  Mr.  C.  A.  Stewart 
chairman,  and  Mr.  W.  H.  Wormley  secretary.  Remarks  were 
then  made  by  several  speakers,  relative  to  the  death  of  the 
late  President  of  the  United  States. 

The  Chair  appointed  the  following  gentlemen  a  committee  on 
resolutions. 

Samuel  J.  Catcher,  William  Syphax,  D.  G.  Muse,  William 
A.  Hughes,  and  John  F.  Cook. 

The  committee,  after  a  brief  withdrawal,  reported  the  fol- 
lowing resolutions,  which  were  unanimously  adopted,  as  expres- 
sive of  the  feelings  of  the  meeting : 

Whereas  on  the  14th  of  April,  1865,  our  late  President,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
was  foully  assassinated  ;  and  whereas,  in  him,  we,  the  colored  people  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  have  lost  an  emancipator,  benefactor,  friend,  and  leader; 
therefore,  be  it 

Hesolved,  That  we,  in  common  with  all  other  loyal  citizens  of  the  republic, 
have  cause  to  mourn  the  sudden  loss  of  one  whose  faithfulness  to  convictions  of 
duty,  and  earnest  execution  of  his  realizations  of  the  truth,  whose  warm-heart- 
edness, magnanimity,  frankness,  and  honesty  have  endeared  him  to  our  hearts. 

Resolved,  That  we  devoutly  feel  this  lamentable  event  to  be  a  part  of  the 
chastening  discipline  to  which  the  nation  is  being  subjected  for  its  departure 
from  the  original  principles  on  which  the  government  was  founded,  the  self- 
evident  and  unyielding  truths  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  "That  all 
men  are  born  free  and  equal,  and  endowed  with  the  inalienable  gift  of  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

Resolved,  That  we  condole  with  his  sorrowing  wife  and  bereaved  children  in 
the  terrible  bereavement ;  and  our  sincere  prayers  shall  be  to  Almighty  God  to 
sustain  them  in  their  hour  of  saddening  trial. 

Resolved,  That  we  sincerely  sympathize  with  the  Hon.  Secretary  of  State, 
and  his  son,  the  able  Assistant  Secretary,  and  their  families,  in  their  great  suf- 


154 

fering  and  aggravated  injuries,  and  pray  God  for  their  speedy  recovery  to 
health. 

Besolved,  That  the  foregoing  resolutions  be  published  in  the  city  papers,  and 
a  copy  be  transmitted  to  the  family  of  our  late  President. 

Tributes  of  respect  to  the  memory  and  services  of  President 
Lincoln  were  expressed,  in  appropriate  resolutions,  by  various 
benevolent  organizations  and  churches  in  Washington  city  and 
Georgetown,  but  the  limits  assigned  to  this  work  preclude  their 
insertion 


FUNERAL  HONORS  ON  THE  ROUTE  FROM 
WASHINGTON  TO  SPRINGFIELD. 


The  funeral  cortege,  by  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  who 
had  superintended  and  directed  the  entire  funeral  ceremonies 
with  admirable  efficiency,  left  Washington  with  the  remains  of 
the  late  President,  on  Friday  morning,  the  21st  of  April,  1865, 
for  Springfield,  Illinois,  the  place  of  their  final  interment,  and 
the  early  and  cherished  home  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 

Peace !  Let  the  long  procession  come, 
For  hark! — the  mournful,  muffled  drum — 

The  trumpet's  wail  afar — 

And  see !  the  awful  car ! 

Peace!  Let  the  sad  procession  go, 
"While  cannon  boom,  and  bells  toll  slow : 

And  go,  thou  sacred  car. 

Bearing  our  woe  afar! 

Go,  darkly  borne,  from  State  to  State, 
Whose  loyal,  sorrowing  cities  wait 

To  honor  all  they  can 

The  dust  of  that  good  man ! 

Go,  grandly  borne,  with  such  a  train 
As  greatest  kings  might  die  to  gain : 

The  just,  the  wise,  the  brave 

Attend  thee  to  the  grave ! 

And  you,  the  soldiers  of  our  wars. 
Bronzed  veterans,  grim  with  noble  scars, 

Salute  him  once  again, 

Your  late  Commander — slain! 
»  ****** 

155 


156 

So,  sweetly,  sadly,  sternly  goes 
The  Fallen  to  his  last  repose: 

Beneath  no  mighty  dome, 

But  in  his  modest  home; 

The  churchyard  where  his  children  rest, 
The  quiet  spot  that  suits  him  best: 

There  shall  his  grave  be  made, 

And  there  his  bones  be  laid ! 

And  there  his  countrymen  shall  come, 
With  memory  proud,  with  pity  dumb. 

And  strangers  far  and  near. 

For  many  and  many  a  year! 

For  many  a  year,  and  many  an  age, 

While  History  on  her  ample  page 

The  virtues  shall  enroll 

Of  that  Paternal  Soul! 

— ^E.  II.  Stoddard. 


And  now  the  martyr  is  moving  in  triumphal  march,  mightier  than  when 
alive.  The  nation  rises  up  at  every  stage  of  his  coming.  Cities  and  States  are 
his  pall-bearers,  and  the  cannon  speaks  the  hours  with  solemn  progression. 
Dead,  dead,  dead,  he  yet  speaketh.  Is  Washington  dead?  Is  Hampden  dead? 
Is  David  dead?  Disenthralled  of  flesh,  risen  to  the  unobstructed  sphere  where 
passion  never  comes,  he  begins  his  illimitable  work.  His  life  is  now  grafted 
upon  the  Infinite,  and  will  be  fruitful,  as  no  earthly  life  can  be.  Pass  on,  thou 
that  hast  overcome!  Your  sorrows,  oh  people,  are  his  pseans;  your  bells  and 
bands  and  muffled  drums  sound  triumph  in  his  ears.  Wail  and  weep  here ; 
God  makes  it  echo  joy  and  triumph  there.  Pass  on!  Four  years  ago,  oh 
Illinois,  we  took  from  thy  midst  an  untried  man,  and  from  among  the  people  ; 
we  return  him  to  you  a  mighty  conqueror.  Not  thine  any  more,  but  the  na- 
tions ;  not  ours,  but  the  world's.  Give  him  place,  oh  ye  prairies  !  In  the  midst 
of  this  great  continent  his  dust  shall  rest,  a  sacred  treasure  to  myriads  who 
shall  pilgrim  to  that  shrine  to  kindle  anew  their  zeal  and  patriotism.  Ye 
winds  that  move  over  the  mighty  places  of  the  West  chant  his  requiem!  Ye 
people,  behold  the  martyr,  whose  blood,  as  so  many  articulate  words,  pleads  for 
fidelity,  for  law,  for  liberty! 


— Henrt  Ward  Beecbeb. 


OBSEQUIES   AT   BALTIMORE. 


The  funeral  train  arrived  in  Baltimore  at  10  o'clock  Friday 
morning,  April  21st.  Governor  Bradford  and  the  State  and 
city  authorities,  Major  General  Wallace,  Brigadier  General 
Tyler,  Commodore  Dornin,  and  many  other  officers  of  the  army 


157 

and  navy  were  present,  and  escorted  the  remains  to  the  funeral 
car  ;  thence  they  were  followed  by  an  immense  multitude,  and 
placed  in  state  in  the  rotunda  of  the  Exchange  Building,  and 
were  visited  by  tens  of  thousands  during  the  day. 

The  military  display,  under  General  Lockwood,  was  the  most 
imposing  ever  witnessed  in  Baltimore  ;  and  the  civic  procession, 
headed  by  the  Governor  of  the  State,  and  composed  of  the 
clergy,  fire  department,  and  benevolent  associations,  was  the 
largest  ever  assembled  in  that  city.  The  tribute  was  with  an 
unanimity  never  before  equalled  by  the  citizens  of  Baltimore. 
The  sorrow  was  sincere,  and  the  homage  to  the  illustrious  dead 
universal.  Houses,  public  buildings,  churches,  and  flags,  were 
everywhere  draped  in  mourning  symbols. 

This  spontaneous  tribute  to  the  memory  of  President  Lincoln 
marked  a  grand  historic  epoch  in  the  public  sentiment  of  Balti- 
more and  Maryland  in  favor  of  the  principles  for  which  he 
died  as  a  martyr.  In  February,  1861,  the  President  elect 
passed  in  secrecy  through  the  city,  on  his  way  to  Washington 
to  be  inaugurated  ;  but  in  April,  1865,  though  a  dead  President, 
he  is  borne  as  a  triumphant  conqueror  through  the  same  city, 
and  receives  the  profound  and  tearful  homage  of  the  people. 
The  State,  under  his  benign  and  wise  administration  of  the 
general  government,  had  been  radically  revolutionized  in  favor 
of  freedom,  and  had  abolished  slavery  by  a  legal  and  popular 
decree,  and  their  reverence  and  love  for  the  great  emancipator 
and  good  man  found  expression  in  every  form  of  sorrow.  They 
felt  the  national  calamity  as  a  personal  bereavement,  and  the 
honor  paid  to  his  memory  and  services  were  worthy  of  the 
Monumental  city  and  State  of  Maryland,  of  which  it  is  the 
metropolis. 

On  the  route  from  Baltimore  toHarrisburg,at  every  railroad 
station,  thousands  of  the  country  people  assembled  and  mani- 
fested their  sorrow  in  affecting  and  beautiful  symbols.  At 
York,  the  ladies  asked  permission  to  lay  on  the  coffin  a  wreath 
of  flowers.  General  Townsend,  Assistant  Adjutant  General 
United  States  Army,  granted  the  request,  with  a  modification 
that  six  of  them  might  perform  the  service.  During  the  per- 
formance of  a  dirge  by  an  instrumental  band,  the  flowers  were 
brought  forth   and  carried  in  procession  to   the  funeral  car, 


158 

wliile  the  bells  tolled,  and  all  the  men  stood  uncovered.  The 
ladies  —  Mrs.  Samuel  Smalley,  Mrs.  Henry  E.  Miles,  Mrs. 
David  E.  Smalley,  Miss  Plover,  Miss  Louisa  Ducka,  and 
Miss  Jane  Latimore — entered  the  car,  three  on  each  side  of  the 
coffin  ;  and  the  wreath  having  been  handed  to  them,  they  placed 
it  in  the  centre  of  the  coffin  and  then  retired,  those  who  wit- 
nessed the  scene  bitterly  weeping.  The  bells  continued  to  toll 
and  the  band  to  sound  its  mournful  strains.  The  wreath  was 
very  large ;  about  three  feet  in  circumference.  The  outer  circle 
was  of  roses,  and  alternate  parallel  lines  were  composed  of 
white  and  red  flowers  of  the  choicest  description. 

FUNERAL  HONORS  AT  HARRISBURG. 

The  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  received  the  following  official 
notice  to  receive  the  remains  of  the  late  President  in  the  capi- 
tal of  Pennsylvania  : 

Washington,  April  19,  1865. 
To  his  Excellency  Governor  A.  G.  Curtin  : 

The  remains  of  the  late  President,  Abrahana  Lincoln,  will  leave  Washington 
on  Friday  morning  at  8  o'clock,  to  go  by  way  of  Baltimore  to  Harrisburg,  and 
thence  to  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  by  the  time-table  as  arranged.  The  re- 
mains will  reach  Harrisburg  at  8  P.  ]\I.  on  Friday,  and  leave  at  12  noon  on 
Saturday,  for  Philadelphia,  where  they  will  remain  until  4  o'clock  Monday 
morning,  and  then  be  conveyed  to  New  York.  A  copy  of  the  time-table  and 
programme  will  be  forwarded  to  you  to-morrow.  You  are  respectfully  invited 
to  meet  the  remains  with  your  staff,  at  such  point  as  you  may  designate  to  this 
Department,  and  accompany  them  so  far  as  you  may  be  pleased  to  go.  You 
will  please  signify  to  this  Department,  by  telegraph,  where  you  will  join  the 
remains  ;  whether  you  will  take  charge  of  them  at  Harrisburg  ;  where  you  will 
have  them  placed  while  they  remain  at  the  capital  of  your  State,  and  what 
honors  you  desire  to  pay  while  there. 
By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War  : 

E.  D.  TOWNSEND, 

Brigadier  General,  A.  A.  Q. 

In  reply  to  the  above,  his  Excellency  immediately  despatched 
as  follows  : 

Haeeisbueq,  April  19. 
To  Brigadier  General  Townsend,  War  Department : 

I  propose  to  take  charge  of  the  remains  at  the  lino  of  the  State,  and  to  ac- 
company them  until  they  leave  the  State.    I  will  meet  them  at  the  border. 


159 

They  will  be  placed  in  the  capitol  at  Harrisburg.    All  the  military  and  civil 

honors  that  can  be  arranged  will  be  shown.    Measures  are  being  taken  for  that 

purpose. 

A.  G.  CURTIN. 

PROCLAMATION  OP  THE  GOVERNOR. 

In  the  name  of  and  by  the  authority  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania, 
Andrew  G.  Curtin,  Governor  of  the  said  Commonwealth — 

A  PEOCLAMATION. 

The  remains  of  the  murdered  patriot,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  will  arrive  in  the  State  on  Friday  evening  next,  on  their  way 
to  the  place  of  interment  in  Illinois.  They  will  come  from  Baltimore  to  Har- 
risburg ;  thence  they  will,  on  Saturday,  be  conveyed  to  Philadelphia,  and  thence 
on  Monday  morning  to  New  York.  I  shall  meet  them  at  the  State  line,  and 
take  charge  of  them  while  in  the  Commonwealth.  I  recommend  that  all  busi- 
ness be  suspended  during  their  passage  through  the  State.  Local  authorities 
and  people  everywhere  join  the  State  authorities  heartily  in  paying  honor  to 
the  memory  of  the  martyred  statesman  who  has  fallen  a  victim  to  the  savage 
treason  of  assassins. 

A.  G.  CURTIN. 

By  the  Governor : 

Eli  Slifee,  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth. 

The  following  order  was  sent  to  General  Cadwalader,  com- 
manding the  military  department  of  the  State  : 

War  Department, 
Adjutant  General's  Office,  April  19. 

To  Major  General  Cadwalader: 

You  will  meet  the  remains  of  the  late  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  upon 
their  entry  into  your  line,  and  escort  them  to  Harrisburg,  the  capital  of  Penn- 
sylvania, keeping  guard  over  them  while  they  remain  in  your  command.  The 
ceremonies  and  public  honors  to  be  paid  them,  while  in  your  command,  will 
be  in  conformity  with  the  direction  of  the  Executive  of  the  State,  to  whom  you 
will  report. 

By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War: 

E.  D.  TOWNSEND,  A.  A.  G. 

On  the  reception  of  the  remains,  the  streets  of  Harrisburg 
were  densely  thronged,  and  a  large  military  escort  accompanied 
the  remains  of  President  Lincoln  to  the  State  House,  amid  the 
sound  of  minute  guns,  where  the  corpse  was  exposed  to  the  view 
of  the  public  until  a  late  hour  at  night. 

A  little  more  than  four  years  ago  there  was  a  scene  of  re- 


160 

joicing  in  the  capital  of  the  groat  Commonwealth  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. Flags  were  hung  on  outer  walls,  and  there  was  every 
token  of  jubilation.  Deep-mouthed  cannon  proclaimed  a  great 
event.  Ilosannas  rang  in  the  air,  and  shouts  of  applause  shook 
the  capitol  from  foundation  to  dome. 

Four  years  had  elapsed,  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  or  at  least 
his  outward  semblance,  was  again  within  the  walls  of  the 
capitol.  Now,  as  then,  a  vast  concourse  of  people  had  gathered 
in  the  capitol  of  the  Commonwealth,  from  far  and  wide.  Those 
who  saw  him  then  saw  him  now,  for  that  was  the  order  of  their 
coming.  The  same  men  and  women  who  shouted  and  waved 
their  handkerchiefs  for  Abraham  Lincoln  in  1861  were  here 
now  to  mourn. 

The  lips  that  moved  then  in  praise,  were  lisping  now  in 
prayer  ;  for  the  lips  of  him  who  spoke  then  were  now  fixed  in 
death.  But  the  policy  ke  enunicated  then,  tlrrough  the  grace 
of  God,  was  fixed  upon  the  country.  He  said  then  he  would 
do  nothing  to  alarm  the  American  people  or  arouse  their 
animosities.  How  well  he  had  kept  his  promise  let  his  meek 
and  merciful  life  testify.  Some  doubted  him  then  ;  none  doubt 
him  now.  The  once  incredulous  wept  with  the  sanguine,  for 
grief  does  but  unite  our  hearts.  Amid  the  general  drapery 
of  mourning,  there  was  the  great  man's  picture  with  this  in- 
scribed :  "  Being  dead,  he  yet  liveth.^'  Thirty  thousand  people 
from  the  adjacent  country  visited  the  remains  of  the  late  Presi- 
dent while  in  Harrisburg,  in  silent  and  solemn  grief  for  their 
and  the  nation's  loss. 

OBSEQUIES  AT  PHILADELPHIA. 

Pliiladelphia,  the  birthplace  of  American  Independence,  had 
no  day  in  her  history  like  that  of  Saturday,  the  22d  of  April. 
At  half-past  four  in  tlie  afternoon  the  remains  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, the  gentle  and  humane  President,  whom  she  loved  as  she 
loved  Washington  in  other  days,  arrived  within  Iicr  limits. 
Half  a  million  of  sorrow-stricken  i)Coplc  were  upon  the  streets 
to  do  lienor  to  all  that  was  left  of  the  man  whom  they 
respected,  revered,  and  loved  with  an  affection  never  before  be- 
stowed upon  any  other,  save  the  Father  of  liis  Country.     Uni- 


161 

versal  grief  was  depicted  on  the  faces  of  all.  Hearts  beat  quick 
and  fast  with  the  throb  of  a  sorrow  which  they  had  never  before 
experienced.  Young  and  old  alike  bowed  in  solemn  reverence 
before  the  draped  chariot  which  bore  the  body  of  the  deceased, 
assassinated  President.  The  feeling  was  too  deep  for  expres- 
sion. The  wet  cheeks  of  the  strong  man,  the  tearful  eyes  of 
tlie  maiden  and  the  matron,  the  hush  which  pervaded  the  atmos- 
phere and  made  it  oppressive,  the  steady  measured  tread  of  the 
military  and  the  civic  procession,  the  mournful  dirges  of  the 
bands,  the  dismal  tolling  of  the  bells  and  the  boom  of  the 
minute  guns,  told  more  than  it  is  possible  for  language  to  ex- 
press. Slowly  and  sadly  the  funeral  cortege  moved  over  the 
designated  route.  Everywhere  were  the  emblems  of  mourning. 
The  flags  were  all  at  half-mast  and  heavily  draped,  and  not  a 
house  along  the  line  of  procession,  indeed,  not  a  house  in  all 
this  vast  city,  but  exhibited  the  signs  of  grief,  the  weeds  of 
woe.  Rome  never  paid  such  lienors  to  her  dead  heroes. 
Greece  never  lavished  such  expressions  of  sorrow  and  regret 
over  the  remains  of  her  departed  great.  The  day  was  a  day  of 
mourning  in  Philadelphia.  It  was  a  day  devoted  solely  as  a 
mighty  tribute  of  regard  to  the  illustrious  dead  ;  and  as  the 
funeral  car  bearing  the  casket  which  inclosed  the  precious  dust 
passed  along  the  crowded  streets,  all  felt  that  too  much  respect 
could  not  be  given  to  the  dead  President,  whose  every  thought, 
whose  every  pulsation  of  his  generous  heart,  and  whose  only 
ambition  were  for  the  welfare  of  his  poor  bleeding  country. 

The  mourning  throngs  at  least  realized,  what  it  was  so  dif- 
ficult to  realize  just  one  week  previous,  that  the  noble  ruler, 
who  for  four  years  had  been  striving  to  secure  the  perpetuity 
of  our  institutions,  and  preserve  untarnished  the  lustre  of  our 
old  flag,  had  passed  from  life  unto  death. 

They  thought  of  all  tliat  he  had  done  ;  how  bravely  he  had 
stood  up  during  the  darkest  days  of  the  rebellion,  and  encour- 
aged his  people ;  how  liis  own  stout  heart,  stout  in  faith  and 
the  justice  of  our  cause,  had  refused  to  yield  to  despondency, 
and  ever  liopeful,  ever  cheerful,  had  imparted  his  own  liope- 
fulness,  liis  own  buoyancy,  to  their  own  hearts. 

They  thouglit  of  liis  unselfishness,  and  they  recalled  to  mind 

the  thousand  magnanimous  acts  wliicli  have  endeared  him  so  to 
11 


162 

the  affections  of  the  people.  The  mother,  the  wife,  the  sister, 
remembered  how  he  cared  for  the  soldier,  and  the  sleepless 
interest  he  took  in  his  welfare.  The  veteran  remembered  his 
kind  words  and  genial  smiles,  and  turned  aside  and  wept. 
Children  gazed  through  dimmed  eyes  on  the  sable  chariot,  and 
felt  that  they  too  had  lost  a  parent  in  "  Father  Abraham." 

ARRIVAL   AT   INDEPENDENCE   HALL. 

It  was  nearly  8  o'clock  when  the  funeral  car  arrived  oppo- 
site the  lower  or  southern  main  entrance  to  Independence 
Square.  Tlie  Union  League  Association  were  detailed  to  re- 
ceive the  body  at  that  point,  and  superintend  the  work  of  hav- 
ing it  placed  in  its  proper  position  in  Independence  Hall.  The 
members  of  the  league  assembled  in  great  numbers  at  Concert 
Hall,  about  5  o'clock,  and  proceeded  from  thence  to  Independ- 
ence Square,  accompanied  by  a  fine  band  of  music  and  colors 
tlraped  in  black.  The  members  were  all  dressed  in  full  suits  of 
black,  and  wore  white  gloves.  On  reaching:  the  square,  the 
members  of  the  association  took  up  position  on  either  side  of 
the  main  thoroughfare  ;  they  were  formed  in  two  ranks,  and 
filled  the  square  from  one  end  to  the  other.  The  band  was 
placed  in  the  State  House  steeple,  and  prior  to  the  arrival  of 
the  remains  performed  a  number  of  dirges. 

When  the  funeral  car  reached  the  main  entrance  to  the 
square,  the  coffin  was  removed  and  taken  within  the  inclosurc, 
when  the  line  of  procession  was  formed,  consisting  of  the  body- 
guard and  pall-bearers,  and  the  solemn  cortege  moved  slowly 
and  sorrowfully  through  the  square  to  Independence  Hall. 
The  members  of  the  Union  League  stood  with  uncovered  heads, 
and  the  band  in  the  steeple  performed  a  mournful  dirge.  The 
square  was  brilliantly  illuminated. 

In  the  shadows  of  night  and  to  the  sad  music  of  the  wailing 
bands,  the  dead  President  was  borne  through  Independence 
Square  into  Independence  Hall.  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  martyr 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  laid  in  solemn  repose  beneath 
the  roof  whicli  covered  the  grand  old  heroes  and  statesmen  of 
the  Revolution.  Cold  and  I'leless  he  lay  in  the  same  chamber 
where  our  fathers  subscribed   their   names   to   t!ic   immortal 


lii'6 

magna  cJiarta  of  our  liberties,  the  declaration  of  American 
independence.  On  the  22d  of  February,  1861,  he  was  in  that 
hall,  and  under  the  inspiration  of  its  sacred  memories,  while 
raising  the  national  flag  above  its  hallowed  roof,  he  uttered  these 
significant  words : 

It  was  something  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  giving  liberty,  not  only 
to  the  people  of  this  country,  but  hope  to  the  world  for  all  future  time.  It  was 
that  which  gave  promise  that  in  due  time  the  weights  should  be  lifted  from  the 
shoulders  of  all  men,  and  that  all  should  have  an  equal  chance.  *  *  Now, 
my  friends,  can  the  country  be  saved  upon  that  basis?  If  it  can,  I  will  con- 
sider myself  one  of  the  happiest  raen  in  the  world  if  I  can  help  to  save  it.  But 
if  this  country  cannot  be  saved  without  giving  up  that  principle,  I  was  about 
to  say  I  would  rather  be  assassinated  upon  this  spot  than  to  surrender  it. 

He  may  have  had  a  glimpse  into  the  future,  and  his  eye  may 
have  seen  dimly  the  fate  which  overtook  him  at  the  moment  the 
noble  principles  for  which  he  has  so  long  and  faithfully  con- 
tended were  triumphantly  vindicated  and  forever  established. 

It  was  proper  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  champion  of  free- 
dom, the  martyr  to  those  principles,  should  rest  over  tlie  holy 
Sabbath  in  this  sanctuary  of  the  republic.  It  was  fitting  that 
his  remains  should  repose  during  the  sacred  hours  beneath  the 
eyes  of  the  statesmen  and  patriots  who  look  down  from  tlie 
walls  of  that  consecrated  temple — a  temple  dedicated  nearly  a 
century  since  by  our  fathers  as  a  shrine  to  human  freedom — a 
shrine  to  which  all  time  would  come  with  reverence  and  affec- 
tion. It  was  meet  that  the  sacrifice  of  the  nineteenth  century 
should  be  laid  in  awful  glory  at  the  feet  of  his  statue  whose 
memory  we  were  taught  to  love  and  honor  in  our  infancy — 
George  Washington. 

At  the  head  of  the  coffin,  clothed  in  black  drapery,  relieved 
by  a  profusion  of  flowers  in  bouquets,  wreaths,  crosses,  and 
anchors,  is  the  great  bell  that  ninety  years  ago  burst  with  the 
mighty  strokes  that  proclaimed  the  passage  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  It  still  bears  in  cut  bronze  the  famous  in- 
scription— 

Proclaim  Liberty  throughout  all  the  land,  unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof. — 
Lev.,  XXV.,  10. 

Then  there  is  the  chair  in  which  Hancock  sat  when  presiding 


164 

over  the  Continental  Congress ;  the  chair  he  rose  from  when 
he  stepped  to  the  clerk's  desk  on  the  fourth  day  of  July,  1776, 
to  sign  his  name  in  bold  characters  to  the  Declaration.  Around 
the  room  are  statues  and  pictures  of  Washington  and  others  of 
the  fathers.  The  whole  hall  is  one  mass  of  flags,  drapery,  and 
flowers — flags  for  patriotism,  drapery  for  mourning,  flowers  for 
love,  for  hope,  for  all  tender  and  beautiful  sentiment,  and  for 
the  resurrection. 

Independence  Hall  has,  during  the  years  which  succeeded  the 
f'ourth  of  July,  1776,  been  the  scene  of  many  joys  and  much 
sorrow,  but  the  old  walls  never  before  witnessed  such  touching 
displays  of  grief.  The  occasion  will  be  ever  memorable  in  its 
history  as  one  in  which  a  city's  tears  were  freely  shed,  when 
sorrow  and  distress  were  superior  to  every  other  interest,  and 
when  mourning  thousands  passed  through  its  sacred  inclosure 
intent  only  upon  a  tearful  duty.  Peace  to  the  memory  of  the 
good  President.  Honor  will  gild  his  name  in  history,  and 
generations  yet  unborn  will  bless  the  memory  of  the  man  who 
restored  republican  institutions  to  their  true  course,  and  taught 
the  world  a  lesson  of  freedom  which  will  redound  to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  oppressed  in  every  land. 

Of  all  the  incidents  connected  with  the  late  solemnities  in 
Philadelphia,  not  one  has  been  so  full  of  silent  pathos,  so  full 
of  present  and  future  meaning,  as  that  of  the  poor  black  woman 
bringing  her  "roughly-made"  wreath  of  evergreen,  and  in  tears 
presenting  it,  to  be  placed  at  the  head,  or  at  the  feet,  or  some- 
where near  the  beloved  remains  of  him,  the  crowning  act  of 
whose  life  was  the  immense  benefit  he  had  conferred  upon  her 
people — her  down-trodden,  her  oppressed  people.  Was  she  not 
on  that  solemn  occasion  the  chosen  representative  of  her  race  ? 
'Twas  right  to  strew  rare  and  sweet  flowers  around  the  form 
of  the  one  so  loved  and  honored.  This  poor  woman's  tribute 
was,  however,  an  evergreen — emblematic  of  the  everlasting  re- 
membrance in  which  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln  would  be 
held  in  all  time  to  come. 

No  formal  funeral  oration  or  services  were  performed  over 
the  remains  while  in  Philadelphia,  except  an  expressive  prayer 
offered  by  Rev.  Dr.  Brooks,  on  the  reception  of  the  remains  at 
Independence  Hall.     The   Sabbath,  as  the  remains   rested  in 


165 

that  consecrated  Hall,  was  improved  by  most  of  the  ministers 
in  delivering  appropriate  discourses  on  the  character  of  the  il- 
lustrious dead,  and  the  providence  that  had  so  suddenly  be- 
reaved the  nation  of  its  great  chieftain  and  ruler. 

The  funeral  procession  through  the  streets  of  the  city  num- 
bered one  hundred  thousand,  and  three  hundred  thousand  more 
were  spectators.  During  Saturday  evening,  the  22d  of  April, 
and  the  following  Sabbath,  it  was  estimated  that  three  hundred 
thousand  visited  Independence  Hall  to  gaze  upon  the  face  of 
our  martyred  and  immortal  President.  The  days  are  historic 
and  memorable  days  in  the  annals  of  that  patriotic  and  loyal 
city,  and  will  be  in  interest  and  moral  significance  reckoned 
with  the  immortal  days  of  revolutionary  memory,  which  trans- 
pired in  that  city  then,  so  full  of  the  inspirations  of  liberty  and 
of  loyal  devotion  to  the  great  principles  of  freedom  and  right 
for  which  Abraham  Lincoln  fell  a  martyr  on  the  night  of  the 
14th  of  April,  1865. 

The  scenes  between  Philadelphia  and  New  York  were  im- 
pressive pictures  of  the  universal  sorrow. 

At  Newark,  New  Jersey,  it  seemed  as  if  the  inhabitants  had 
resolved  to  turn  out  en  masse  to  pay  their  brief  tribute  of 
respect  to  the  memory  of  the  departed  as  his  coffin  passed  by. 
For  a  distance  of  a  mile,  the  observer  on  the  train  could  per- 
ceive only  one  sea  of  human  beings.  It  was  not  a  crowd  surg- 
ing with  excitement  or  impatience  like  most  assemblages,  but 
stood  quiet  and  apparently  subdued  with  grief  unspeakable. 
Every  man,  with  hardly  an  exception,  from  one  end  of  the  town 
to  the  other,  stood  bareheaded  while  the  train  passed  ;  half  of 
the  women  were  crying,  and  every  face  bore  an  expression  of 
sincere  sadness.  Housetops,  fences,  and  the  very  ditches  beside 
the  track,  were  covered  with  people.  Nothing  could  be  more 
touching  than  the  simple  unanimity  with  which  the  men  and 
women  of  Newark  left  their  avocations  and  waited  beside  the 
track  for  the  passage  of  the  funeral  train. 

Jersey  City  witnessed  a  grand  reception  of  the  remains  of 
the  President.  The  train  moved  slowly  into  the  immense 
station,  than  which  there  is  no  larger  hall  in  the  country.  A 
brilliant  collection  of  military  ofiScers  and  a  large  number  of 
civic  dignitaries  were  gathered  on  the  floor.    The  long  galleries, 


16G 

extending  all  around  the  hall,  were  filled  with  ladies,  and  in  the 
centre  of  the  hall  was  stationed  a  choir  of  seventy  German 
male  singers,  whose  voices  ascended  through  the  lofty  arches  in 
a  solemn  chant,  the  sound  blending  in  exquisite  harmony  with 
the  solemnity  of  the  scene.  The  reception  at  Newark  was  the 
most  touching;  that  at  Jersey  City  the  most  thrilling.  A  sin- 
gular circumstance  in  this  building  was  the  huge  clock  of  the 
railroad  station  being  stopped  at  twenty  minutes  past  seven,  the 
hour  of  the  President's  death.  As  the  cortege  crossed  the 
river  on  the  ferry-boat,  the  choir  sang  again  with  fine  effect. 

FUNERAL  HONORS  IN  NEW  YORK. 

New  York  never  before  saw  such  days  as  it  witnessed  on 
Monday  and  Tuesday,  the  24th  and  25th  of  April,  1865.  Rome 
in  the  palmiest  days  of  its  power  never  witnessed  such  a 
triumphal  march  as  New  York  formed  and  looked  upon. 
When,  four  years  ago,  Abraham  Lincoln  passed  through 
the  city  to  be  armed  with  authority  as  the  nation's  leader, 
Broadway  sufficed  to  contain  the  crowd  which,  with  varied 
sentiments,  cheered,  and  scoffed,  and  scowled  him  a  doubtful 
welcome.  When  the  same  people,  inspired  with  a  common, 
universal  sorrow,  sadly  followed  his  body,  crowned  with  more 
glorious  honors  as  the  nation's  saviour,  the  same  wide  street 
hardly  held  a  fraction  of  them.  Then  he  was  going  to  be 
crowned  Chief  Magistrate  of  a  divided  people  and  disruptured 
nation  on  the  eve  of  a  great,  bloody,  and  uncertain  war.  Now 
lie  was  the  great  martyr  of  a  nation  united  under  his  guidance 
and  that  of  God,  by  the  successful  close  of  that  gloomy  war. 
Then  he  passed  through  almost  unknown,  and  the  crowd  that 
followed  his  coach  with  cheers  were  actuated  by  curiosity  as 
much  as  by  admiration.  Now  it  was  different ;  it  witnessed 
the  real  triumphal  march  of  Abraham  Lincoln  ;  for  he  had  con- 
quered the  prejudices  of  all  classes,  and  the  hearts  of  the  peo- 
ple who  honored  him  beat  with  love  and  veneration  for  the 
man.  Better  for  his  fame  that  it  should  thus  come  late  than 
too  soon.  This  test  of  his  success  and  his  greatness  can  never 
be  doubted  or  disputed. 

No  city  in  Europe,  upon  any  occasion,  whether  joyful  or 


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167 

mournful,  could  produce  anything  like  it,  if  we  regard  it  either 
in  point  of  numbers,  or  the  class  of  men  who  participated,  or 
the  universality  with  which  all  interests,  nationalities,  creeds, 
political  bodies,  trades,  professions,  and  ranks  united — all  ani- 
mated by  one  spirit,  and  that  spirit  respect  for  the  dead,  asso- 
ciated with  a  deep  love  of  country,  of  which  the  illustrious 
departed  was  so  honorable  an  example.     The  funeral  ceremo- 
nies of  the  first  Napoleon,  in  the  streets  of  Paris,  when  his  re- 
mains were  transferred  from  St.  Helena  to  the  Invalides  by 
Louis  Philippe,  were  regarded  as  the  greatest  pageant  the  world 
had  ever  known,  but  the  pageant  in  New  York  far  exceeded 
it.    The  idol  of  France  received  no  more  devoted  homage  than 
was  paid  to  the  deceased  President  of  the  United  States  by 
the  people  of  the  metropolis  of  this  republic.     The  restoration 
of  the  dead  Napoleon  to  France  brought  about  the  restoration 
of  the  Bonaparte  dynasty.      So  the  circumstances  attending 
the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln  have  ushered  in  a  new  era  in  the  po- 
litical history  of  this  country — an  era  of  strength,  unity,  and 
unswerving  patriotism.     As  France,  under  the  regime  inaugu- 
rated by  that  event,  became  a  great  empire,  so  also  will   thq 
United  States  assume,  from  the  consequences  of  the  tragedy 
which  has  lately  been  enacted,  a  grander  position  as  a  republic 
than  they  have  ever  occupied  before. 

It  is  estimated  that  there  were  in  the  procession  one  hundred 
thousand  men,  of  whom  twenty  thousand  were  soldiers.  One 
hundred  bands  sent  forth  solemn  strains  of  music  during  the 
march.  From  half  a  million  to  a  million  of  spectators  are 
supposed  to  have  witnessed  the  spectacle.  Among  those  who 
followed  the  remains  was  the  venerable  soldier  and  chieftain, 
Lieutenant  General  Scott. 

The  city,  in  all  its  private  and  public  buildings,  was  draped 
in  symbols  of  mourning,  and  beautiful  and  appropriate  mottoes 
were  everywhere  seen,  expressive  of  the  profound  and  heart- 
felt grief  of  that  great  commercial  centre  of  the  nation. 

The  public  services  in  Union  Square,  held  on  Tuesday  after- 
noon, the  25th  of  April,  were  of  the  most  imposing  grandeur  and 
solemnity.     They  were  opened  with  the  following  prayer,  by 


168 

Rev.  Stephen  H.  Tyng,  who  was  introduced  to  the  vast  au- 
dience by  ex-Governor  King  : 

I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life,  saith  the  Lord ;  he  that  believeth  in  me, 
though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live ;  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in 
me  shall  never  die.  I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth,  and  that  He  shall  stand 
at  the  latter  day  upon  the  earth,  and  though  after  my  skin  worms  destroy  this 
body,  yet  in  my  flesh  I  shall  see  God,  whom  I  shall  see  for  myself,  and  my  eyes 
shall  behold  and  not  another.  We  brought  nothing  into  this  world,  and  it  is 
certain  we  can  carry  nothing  out.  The  Lord  gave,  the  Lord  hath  taken 
away,  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord.  0,  God,  who  art  the  God  of  the  spirits 
of  all  flesh,  in  whose  hand  our  breath  is,  and  whose  are  all  our  ways,  in  Thine 
infinite  wisdom  Thou  hast  seen  well  to  take  away  the  desire  of  our  eyes  with 
a  stroke,  the  anointed  of  the  Lord  and  the  faithful  choice  of  a  loving  people, 
under  whose  shadow  we  hoped  and  desired  to  dwell  before  Thee.  We  bow  be- 
fore Thy  righteous  will  with  deep  humiliation,  submission,  confidence,  and  faith. 
We  revere  and  acknowledge  Thee  as  the  high  and  lofty  One  who  inhabitest 
eternity,  whose  name  is  Holy,  with  whom  is  no  variableness,  neither  shadow 
of  turning.  We  look  upon  Thee  as  a  Father  of  infinite  tenderness,  reconciling 
us  unto  Thyself  in  Thy  dear  Son  ;  and  as  a  father  pitieth  his  own  children,  so 
have  compassion  on  all  them  that  fear  Thee.  We  confess  Thee  as  the  Saviour 
and  defence  of  Thy  people,  who  hast  put  away  their  sins  by  an  infinite  sacri- 
fice, and  as  far  as  the  oast  is  from  the  west,  and  rememberest  our  iniquity  no 
more.  We  acknowledge  Thee  this  day  the  God  of  all  comfort  and  consolation, 
whose  gracious  command  in  Thy  word  is,  "  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye,  my  peo- 
ple, saith  your  God;  cry  unto  them  that  their  warfare  is  accomplished  and  their 
iniquity  is  pardoned."  0,  God,  we  would  bow  with  deep  humility  before  the 
righteousness  of  Thy  will,  and  with  unfeigned  gratitude  acknowledge  the  ful- 
ness of  Thy  grace.  A  mourning  and  bereaved  people  gather  together  at  Thy 
feet;  we  would  come  with  the  deepest  feeling  of  thankfulness  for  that  which 
Thou  hast  given  and  for  that  which  Thou  hast  taken  away.  We  bless  Thee  for 
all  the  influence,  example,  wisdom,  and  fidelity  of  the  loved  and  exalted  ruler 
whom  Thou  didst  set  up  over  us,  and  whom  Thou  hast  now  taken  to 
Thyself.  We  praise  Thee  that  Thou  hast  made  him  tlie  instrument  oi 
saving  this  nation  from  overthrow  and  ruin ;  that  Thou  hast  made 
him  thine  agent  in  subduing  a  rebellion  terrific  and  atrocious,  whose 
condemnation  is  recorded  by  Thee.  We  bless  Thee  that  Thou  hast  spoken 
peace  by  him  to  the  oppressed  and  suS'ering,  proclaiming  liberty  to  those  held 
in  bondage,  and  bid  millions  of  helpless  and  despairing  lift  up  their  heads  with 
joy  among  Thy  people.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  remembrance  of  all  his  fidelity 
in  government,  ruling  in  equity  as  the  morning  which  ariseth  without  a  cloud, 
and  for  all  that  meekness,  and  gentleness,  and  faithfulness,  and  love,  so  attract- 
ive and  so  conspicuous  in  his  example.  And  while  with  the  deepest  seise  of 
our  loss  we  bow,  as  bereaved  and  mourning  ones  at  Thy  feet,  with  the  most 
humble  thankfulness  for  all  that  the  nation  has  gained  through  his  instrument- 


169 

ality  and  faithfulness,  we  adore  and  glorify  Thy  name.  We  meet  throughont 
this  land  to-day  in  the  spirit  of  accordant  supplication  and  praise.  We  implore 
thy  blessing  upon  this  whole  nation,  that  this  chastisement,  painful  and  mys- 
terious as  it  appears,  may  be  Thine  instrument  of  uniting  this  people  in  bonds 
of  fellowship  and  love,  and  bringing  the  hearts  of  all  in  full  accord  in  the  sup- 
port of  the  government  Thou  hast  set  over  us,  and  in  seeking  the  things  which 
make  for  peace  and  things  whereby  one  may  edify  another.  We  pray  that  in  the 
midst  of  Thy  judgments  this  whole  nation  may  learn  righteousness.  We  implore 
Thy  gracious  blessing  upon  the  sorrowing  and  the  suffering,  upon  the  wounded  and 
the  bereaved  who  have  given  their  joy  on  earth,  their  health  in  early  life,  as  a 
service  and  sacrifice  for  their  fidelity  to  us  and  their  obedience  to  Thee.  We 
unite  in  supplication  for  Thy  blessing  upon  the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  who 
stood  in  the  tenderest  relations  to  our  honored  and  exalted  ruler,  and  while 
from  them,  as  from  us,  thou  hast  hidden  lover  and  friend  in  darkness,  we  im- 
plore Thee  to  be  the  everlasting  Ruler  of  this  people,  and  make  them  to  remem- 
ber and  feel  that  the  Most  High  ordereth  all  things  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  putting  down  one  and  setting  up  another. 

We  implore  Thy  blessing  upon  him  whom,  in  Thine  own  providence.  Thou 
hast  exalted  to  be  the  present  ruler  of  this  nation.  Guard  his  valued  life  from 
outward  violence  and  from  fear  of  wrong;  guide  him  by  Thine  own  wisdom  and 
judgment,  and  succor  and  defend  him  by  Thine  own  protecting  power.  Give 
him  wise  and  faithful  counsellors  who  shall  combine  to  rule  this  people  in 
equity  and  truth ;  prosper  all  their  efforts  for  a  speedy,  stable,  and  righteous 
peace  throughout  this  nation.  0,  God,  in  the  sorrow  of  this  day,  hasten  the 
coming  hour  when  this  people  shall  desire  to  learn  war  no  more ;  when  they 
shall  speak  peace  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  North  and  South,  East 
and  West,  dwelling  in  concord  and  harmony,  we  shall  be  one  people,  known 
by  one  name  and  feeling,  and  that  we  have  one  interest  forever.  Set  up  Thy 
glorious  Gospel  through  all  this  land;  make  it  Emmanuel's  land ;  and  as  Thou 
wast  our  fathers'  God,  be  Thou  our  God  and  the  God  of  our  seed  afterwards, 
from  generation  to  generation,  through  successive  presidents  of  fidelity,  useful- 
ness, and  honor  ;  that  this  people  may  be  a  prospered  people,  a  thankful  people, 
a  useful  people,  a  holy  people,  under  Thy  government  and  by  Thy  blessing. 
And  this  day  we  ask  that  for  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  a  dominion  of  right- 
eousness and  peace — Thine  everlasting  dominion — may  be  set  up,  and  the  king- 
dom of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ.  Meet  us,  sanctify  us,  and  bless  us  as  we 
are  here  together ;  and  in  the  spirit  of  filial  gratitude  and  humility,  teach  us  to 
unite  in  using  those  precious  words  of  our  Divine  Redeemer:  Our  Father  who 
art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  Thy  name ;  Thy  kingdom  come ;  Thy  will  be  done 
on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven ;  give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,  and  forgive  us 
our  trespasses  as  we  forgive  those  who  trespass  against  us ;  and  lead  us  not  into 
temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil:  for  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power, 
3,nd  the  glory,  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen. 

ORATION   BY   THE   HON.    GEO.    BANCROFT. 

A  few  words  from  the  chairman  introduced  the  orator  of  the 
occasion  to  the  assemblage. 


170 

The  Hon.  Geo.  Bancroft  then  proceeded  to  deliver  the  fol 
lowing  oration,  during  the  delivery  of  which  he  was  frequently 
applauded  : 

Our  grief  and  horror  at  the  crime  which  has  clothed  the  continent  in  mourn- 
ing find  no  adequate  expression  in  words,  and  no  relief  in  tears.  The  President 
of  the  United  States  of  America  has  fallen  by  tho  hands  of  an  assassin.  Neithex 
the  office  with  which  he  was  invested  by  the  approved  choice  of  a  mighty  peo- 
ple, nor  the  most  simple-hearted  kindliness  of  nature,  could  save  him  from  the 
fiendish  passions  of  relentless  fanaticism.  The  wailings  of  the  millions  attend 
his  remains  as  they  are  borne  in  solemn  procession  over  our  great  rivers,  along 
the  sea-side,  beyond  the  mountains,  across  the  prairie,  to  their  final  resting 
place  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  The  echoes  of  his  funeral  knell  vibrate 
through  the  world,  and  the  friends  of  freedom  of  every  tongue  and  in  every 
clime  are  his  mourners.  Too  few  days  have  passed  away  since  Abraham  Lin- 
coln stood  in  the  flush  of  vigorous  manhood  to  permit  any  attempt  at  analysis 
of  his  character  or  an  exposition  of  his  career.  We  find  it  hard  to  believe  that 
his  large  eyes,  which  in  their  softness  and  beauty  expressed  nothing  but  benevo- 
lence and  gentleness,  are  closed  in  death  ;  we  almost  look  for  the  pleasant  smile 
that  brought  out  more  vividly  the  earnest  cast  of  his  features,  which  were 
serious  even  to  sadness.  A  few  years  ago  he  was  a  village  attorney,  engaged 
in  the  support  of  a  rising  family,  unknown  to  fame,  scarcely  named  beyond 
his  neighborhood;  his  administration  made  him  the  most  conspicuous  man  in 
his  country,  and  drew  on  him  first  the  astonished  gaze,  and  then  the  respect 
and  admiration  of  the  world.  Those  who  come  after  us  will  decide  how  much 
of  the  wonderful  results  of  his  public  career  is  due  to  his  own  good  common 
sense,  his  shrewd  sagacity,  readiness  of  wit,  quick  interpretation  of  the  public 
mind ;  his  rare  combination  of  fixedness  and  pliancy ;  his  steady  tendency  of 
purpose;  how  much  to  the  American  people,  who,  as  he  walked  with  them,  side 
by  side,  inspired  him  with  their  own  wisdom  and  energy ;  and  how  much  to 
the  overruling  laws  of  the  moral  world,  by  which  the  selfishness  of  evil  is 
made  to  defeat  itself.  But  after  every  allowance,  it  will  remain  that  members 
of  the  government  which  preceded  his  administration  opened  the  gates  to  trea- 
son, and  he  closed  them ;  that  when  he  went  to  Washington  the  ground  on 
which  he  trod  shook  under  his  feet,  and  he  left  the  republic  on  a  solid  founda- 
tion ;  that  traitors  had  seized  public  forts  and  arsenals,  and  he  recovered  them 
for  the  United  States,  to  whom  they  belonged;  that  the  capital,  which  he  found 
the  abode  of  slaves,  is  now  the  home  only  of  the  free ;  that  the  boundless 
public  domain  which  was  grasped  at,  and,  in  a  great  measure,  held  for  the 
diffusion  of  slavery,  is  now  irrevocably  devoted  to  freedom ;  that  then  men 
talked  a  jargon  of  a  balance  of  power  in  a  republic  between  slave  States  and 
free  States,  and  now  the  foolish  words  are  blown  away  forever  by  the  breath 
of  Maryland,  Missouri  and  Tennessee;  that  a  terrific  cloud  of  political  heresy 
rose  from  the  abyss,  threatening  to  hide  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  under  its 
darkness  a  rebellion  was  rising  into  indefinable  proportions;  now  the  atmos- 
phere is  purer  than  ever  before,  and  the  insurrection  is  vanishing  away;  the 
country  is  cast  into  another  mould,  and  the  gigantic  system  of  wrong  which 
had  been  the  work  of  more  than  two  centuries  is  dashed  down,  we  hope  forever. 


171 

And  as  to  himself  personally:  he  was  then  scoffed  at  by  the  proud  as  unfit  for 
his  station,  and  now  against  the  usage  of  later  years,  and  in  spite  of  numerous 
competitors,  he  was  the  unbiassed  and  the  undoubted  choice  of  the  American 
people  for  a  second  term  of  service.  Through  all  the  mad  business  of  treason 
he  retained  the  sweetness  of  a  most  placable  disposition ;  and  the  slaughter  ot 
myriads  of  the  best  on  the  battle-field  and  the  more  terrible  destruction  of  our 
men  in  captivity  by  the  slow  torture  of  exposure  and  starvation,  had  never 
been  able  to  provoke  him  into  harboring  one  vengeful  feeling  or  one  purpose 
of  cruelty. 

How  shall  the  nation  most  completely  show  its  sorrow  at  Mr.  Lincoln's  death  ? 
How  shall  it  best  honor  his  memory  ?  There  can  be  but  one  answer.  He  was 
struck  down  when  he  was  highest  in  its  service,  and  in  strict  conformity  with 
duty  was  engaged  in  carrying  out  principles  affecting  its  life,  its  good  name,  and 
its  relations  to  the  cause  of  freedom  and  the  progress  of  mankind.  Grief  must 
take  the  character  of  action,  and  breathe  itself  forth  in  the  assertion  of  the 
policy  to  which  he  fell  a  sacrifice.  The  standard  which  he  held  in  his  hand 
must  be  uplifted  again,  higher  and  more  firmly  than  before,  and  must  be  carried 
on  to  triumph.  Above  everything  else,  his  proclamation  of  tlie  1st  day  of 
January,  1863,  declaring  throughout  the  parts  of  the  country  in  rebellion  the 
freedom  of  all  persons  who  had  been  held  as  slaves,  must  be  ailirmed  and  main- 
tained. Events,  as  they  rolled  onward,  have  removed  every  doubt  of  tho 
legality  and  binding  force  of  that  proclamation.  The  country  and  the  rebel 
government  have  each  laid  claim  to  the  public  service  of  the  slave,  and  yet  but 
one  of  the  two  can  have  a  rightful  claim  to  such  service.  That  rightful  claim 
belongs  to  the  United  States,  because  every  one  born  on  their  soil,  with  the  few 
exceptions  of  the  children  of  travellers  and  transient  residents,  owes  them  a 
primary  allegiance.  Every  one  so  born  has  been  counted  among  those  repre- 
sented in  Congress ;  every  slave  has  ever  been  represented  in  Congress — imperfectly 
and  wrongly  it  may  be — but  still  has  been  counted  and  represented.  The  slave 
born  on  our  soil  always  owed  allegiance  to  the  general  government.  It  may  in 
time  past  have  been  a  qualified  allegiance,  manifested  through  his  master,  aa 
the  allegiance  of  a  ward  through  its  guardian  or  of  an  infant  through  its  parent. 
But  when  the  master  became  false  to  his  allegiance,  the  slave  stood  face  to  face 
with  his  country,  and  his  allegiance,  which  may  before  have  been  a  qualified 
one,  became  direct  and  immediate.  His  chains  fell  off,  and  he  stood  at  once  in 
the  presence  of  the  nation,  bound,  like  the  rest  of  us,  to  its  public  defence.  Mr. 
Lincoln's  proclamation  did  but  take  notice  of  the  already  existing  right  of  the 
bondman  to  freedom.  The  treason  of  the  master  made  it  a  public  crime  for  the 
slave  to  continue  his  obedience ;  the  treason  of  a  State  set  free  the  collective 
bondmen  of  that  State.  This  doctrine  is  supported  by  the  analogy  of  prece- 
dents. In  the  times  of  feudalism,  the  treason  of  the  lord  of  the  manor  deprived 
him  of  his  serfs  ;  the  spurious  feudalism  that  existed  among  us  differs  in  many 
respects  from  the  feudalism  of  the  middle  ages,  but  so  far  the  precedent  runs 
parallel  with  the  present  case;  for  treason  the  master  then,  for  treason  the 
master  now,  loses  his  slaves.  In  the  middle  ages  the  sovereign  appointed  another 
lord  over  the  serfs  and  the  land  which  they  cultivated ;  in  our  day  the  sovei'eign 
makes  them  masters  of  their  own  persons,  lords  over  themselves.     It  has  been 


172 

paid  that  we  are  at  war,  and  that  emancipation  is  not  a  belligerent  right.  The 
objection  disappears  before  analysis.  In  a  war  between  independent  powers, 
the  invading  foreigner  invites  to  his  standard  all  who  will  give  hirn  aid,  whether 
bond  or  free,  and  he  rewards  them  according  to  his  ability  and  his  pleasure 
with  gifts  or  freedom ;  but  when  at  peace  he  withdraws  from  the  invaded 
country  he  must  take  his  aiders  and  comforters  with  him ;  or  if  he  leaves  them 
behind,  where  he  has  no  court  to  enforce  his  decrees,  he  can  give  them  no 
security,  unless  it  be  by  the  stipulations  of  a  treaty.  In  a  civil  war  it  is 
altogether  different.  There,  when  rebellion  is  crushed,  the  old  government  is 
restored,  and  its  courts  resume  their  jurisdiction.  So  it  is  with  us ;  the  United 
States  have  courts  of  their  own  that  must  punish  the  guilt  of  treason  and  vin- 
dicate the  freedom  of  persons  whom  the  fact  of  rebellion  has  set  free.  Nor 
may  it  be  said  that  because  slavery  existed  in  most  of  the  States  when  the 
Union  was  formed,  it  cannot  rightfully  be  interfered  with  now.  A  change  has 
taken  place,  such  as  Madison  foresaw,  and  for  which  he  pointed  out  the  remedy. 
The  constitutions  of  States  had  been  transformed  before  the  plotters  of  treason 
carried  them  away  into  rebellion.  When  the  federal  constitution  was  formed, 
general  emancipation  was  thought  to  be  near,  and  everywhere  the  respective 
legislatures  had  authority,  in  the  exercise  of  their  ordinary  functions,  to  do 
away  with  slavery;  since  that  time  the  attempt  has  been  made  in  what  are 
called  slave  States  to  make  the  condition  of  slavery  perpetual ;  and  events  have 
proved,  with  the  clearness  of  demonstration,  that  a  constitution  which  seeks  to 
continue  a  caste  of  hereditary  bondmen  through  endless  generations  is  incon- 
Eistent  with  the  existence  of  republican  institutions.  So,  then,  the  new  Presi- 
dent and  the  people  of  the  United  States  must  insist  that  the  proclamation  of  free- 
dom shall  stand  as  a  reality ;  and,  moreover,  the  people  must  never  cease  to 
insist  that  the  Constitution  shall  be  so  amended  as  utterly  to  prohibit  slavery  on 
any  part  of  our  soil  forevermore.  Alas!  that  a  State  in  our  vicinity  should 
withhold  its  assent  to  this  last  beneficent  measure  ;  its  refusal  was  an  encourage- 
ment to  our  enemies  equal  to  the  gain  of  a  pitched  battle,  and  delays  the  only 
hopeful  method  of  pacification.  The  removal  of  the  cause  of  the  rebellion  is 
not  only  demanded  by  justice  ;  it  is  the  policy  of  mercy,  making  room  for  a 
wider  clemency ;  it  is  the  part  of  order  against  a  chaos  of  controversy ;  its  suc- 
cess brings  with  it  true  reconcilement,  a  lasting  peace,  a  continuous  growth  of 
confidence  through  an  assimilation  of  the  social  condition.  Here  is  the  fitting 
expression  of  the  mourning  of  to-day.     *  *  *  *  * 

No  one  can  turn  back  or  stay  the  march  of  Providence.  No  sentiment  of 
despair  may  mix  with  our  sorrow.  We  owe  it  to  the  memory  of  the  dead,  we 
owe  it  to  the  cause  of  popular  liberty  throughout  the  world,  that  the  sudden 
crime  which  has  taken  the  life  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  shall  not 
produce  the  least  impediment  in  the  smooth  course  of  public  ailairs.  This  great 
city,  in  the  midst  of  unexampled  emblems  of  deeply  seated  grief,  has  sustained 
itself  with  composure  and  magnanimity.  It  has  nobly  done  its  part  in  guard- 
ing against  the  derangement  of  business  or  the  slightest  shock  to  public  credit. 
The  enemies  of  the  republic  put  it  to  the  severest  trial ;  but  the  voice  of  faction 
has  not  been  heard ;  doubt  and  despondency  have  been  unknown.  In  serene 
majesty  the  country  rises  in  the  beauty,  and  strength,  and  hope  of  youth,  and 


173 

proves  to  the  world  the  quiet  energy  and  the  durability  of  institutions  growing 
out  of  the  reason  and  affections  of  the  people.  Heaven  has  willed  it  that  the 
United  States  shall  live.  The  nations  of  the  earth  cannot  spare  them.  All  tho 
worn-out  aristocracies  of  Europe  saw  in  the  spurious  feudalism  of  slaveholding 
their  strongest  outpost,  and  banded  themselves  together  with  the  deadly  enemies 
of  our  national  life.  If  the  Old  World  will  discuss  the  respective  advantages  of 
oligarchy  or  equality  ;  of  the  union  of  church  and  state,  or  the  rightful  freedom 
of  religion ;  of  land  accessible  to  the  many,  or  of  land  monopolized  by  an  ever 
decreasing  number  of  the  few,  the  United  States  must  live  to  control  the  decision 
by  tlieir  quiet  and  unobtrusive  example.  It  has  often  and  truly  been  observed 
that  the  trust  and  affection  of  the  masses  gather  naturally  round  an  individ- 
ual ;  if  the  inquiry  is  made  whether  the  man  so  trusted  and  beloved  shall  elicit 
from  the  reason  oj  the  people  enduring  institutions  of  their  own,  or  shall  se- 
quester political  power  for  a  superintending  dynasty,  the  United  States  must 
live  to  solve  the  problem.  If  a  question  is  raised  on  the  respective  merits  of 
Timoleon  or  Julius  Caesar,  of  "Washington  or  Napoleon,  the  United  States  must 
be  there  to  call  to  mind  that  there  were  twelve  Caesars,  most  of  them  the  oppro- 
brium of  the  human  race,  and  to  contrast  with  them  the  line  of  American  Presi- 
dents. The  duty  of  the  hour  is  incomplete,  our  mourning  is  insincere,  if  while 
we  express  unwavering  trust  in  the  great  principles  that  underlie  our  govern- 
ment, we  do  not  also  give  our  support  to  the  man  to  whom  the  people  have 
entrusted  its  administration.  Andrew  Johnson  is  now  by  the  Constitution  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  he  stands  before  the  world  as  the  most  con- 
spicuous representative  of  the  industrial  classes.  Left  an  orphan  at  four  years 
old,  poverty  and  toil  were  his  steps  to  honor.  His  youth  was  not  passed  in  the 
halls  of  colleges  ;  nevertheless  he  has  received  a  thorough  political  education 
in  statesmanship  in  the  school  of  the  people,  and  by  long  experience  of  public 
life.  A  village  functionary,  member  successively  of  each  branch  of  the  Ten- 
nessee Legislature,  hearing  with  a  thrill  of  joy  the  words,  "The  Union,  it  must 
be  preserved  ;"  a  representative  in  Congress  for  successive  years  ;  Governor  of 
the  great  State  of  Tennessee,  approved  as  its  Governor  by  re-election  ;  he  was 
at  the  opening  of  the  rebellion  a  Senator  of  that  State  in  Congress.  Then  at 
the  Capitol,  when  senators,  unrebuked  by  the  government,  sent  word  by  tele- 
gram to  seize  forts  and  arsenals,  he  alone  from  that  Southern  region  told  them 
what  the  government  did  not  dare  to  tell  them — that  they  were  traitors,  and 
deserved  the  punishment  of  treason.  Undismayed  by  a  perpetual  purpose  of 
public  enemies  to  take  his  life,  bearing  up  against  the  still  greater  trial  of  the 
persecution  of  his  wife  and  children,  in  due  time  he  went  back  to  his  State,  de- 
termined to  restore  it  to  the  Union,  or  die  with  the  American  flag  for  his  wind- 
ing sheet.  And  now,  at  the  call  of  the  United  States,  he  has  returned  to  Wash- 
ington as  a  conqueror,  with  Tennessee  as  a  free  State  for  his  trophy.  It  remains 
for  him  to  consummate  the  vindication  of  the  Union.  To  that  Union  Abraham 
Lincoln  has  fallen  a  martyr.  His  death,  which  was  meant  to  sever  it  beyond 
repair,  binds  it  more  closely  and  more  firmly  than  ever.  The  blow  aimed  at 
hiin  was  aimed  not  at  the  native  of  Kentucky,  not  at  the  citizen  of  Illinois, 
but  at  the  man  who,  as  President,  in  the  executive  branch  of  the  government, 
Btood  as  the  representative  of  every  man  in  the  United  States.     The  object  of 


174 

tlie  crime  was  the  life  of  the  whole  people,  and  it  wounds  the  affections  of  the 
whole  people.  From  Maine  to  the  southwest  boundary  of  the  Pacific,  it  makes 
lis  one.  The  country  may  have  needed  an  imperishable  grief  to  touch  its  in- 
most feeling.  The  grave  that  receives  the  remains  of  Lincoln  receives  the 
martj'r  to  the  Union ;  the  monument  which  will  rise  over  his  body  will  bear 
witness  to  the  Union  ;  his  enduring  memory  will  assist  during  countless  ages  to 
bind  the  States  together,  and  to  incite  to  the  love  of  our  one  undivided,  indi- 
visible country.  Peace  to  the  ashes  of  our  departed  friend,  the  friend  of  his 
country  and  his  race.  Happy  was  his  life,  for  he  was  the  restorer  of  the 
republic;  he  was  happy  in  his  death,  for  the  manner  of  his  end  will  plead  for- 
ever for  the  Union  of  the  States  and  the  freedom  of  man. 

After  the  oration,  the  Rev.  J.  P.  Thompson,  D.  D.,  read  the 
inaugural  of  the  4th  of  March,  1865,  which  was  received  with 
enthusiastic  applause.  It  is  on  the  seventh  page  of  this  Memo- 
rial Record. 

Rev.  W.  H.  Boole  then  read  tlie  94th  Psalm. 

1.  0  Lord  God,  to  whom  vengeance  belongeth  ;    0  God,  to  whom  vengeance 
belongeth,  shew  thyself. 

2.  Lift  up  thyself,  thou  judge  of  the  earth :  render  a  reward  to  the  proud. 

3.  Lord,  how  long  shall  the  wicked,  how  long  shall  the  wicked  triumph  ? 

4.  How  long  shall  they  utter  and  speak  hard  things?  and  all  the  workers  of 
iniquity  boast  themselves  ? 

5.  They  break  in  pieces  thy  people,  0  Lord,  and  afflict  thine  heritage. 

6.  They  slay  the  widow  and  the  stranger  and  murder  the  fatherless. 

7.  Yet  they  say,  the  Lord  shall  not  see,  neither  shall  the  God  of  Jacob  regard  it. 

8.  Understand,  ye  brutish  among  the  people :  and  ye  fools,  when  will  ye  be 
wise? 

9.  He  that  planted  the  ear,  shall  he  not  hear  ?  he  that  formed  the  eye,  shall 
he  not  see. 

10.  He  that  chastiseth  the  heathen,  shall  not  he  correct?  he  that  teacheth 
man  knowledge,  shall  not  he  know  ? 

11.  The  Lord  knoweth  the  thoughts  of  man,  that  they  are  vanity. 

12.  Blessed  is  the  man  whom  thou  chasteneth,  0  Lord,  and  teachest  him  out 
of  thy  law. 

13.  That  thou  mayest  give  him  rest  from  the  days  of  adversity,  until  the  pit 
be  digged  for  the  wicked, 

14.  For  the  Lord  will  not  cast  off  his  people,  neither  will  he  forsake  his  in- 
heritance. 

15.  But  judgment  shall  return  unto  righteousness;  and  all  the  upright  in 
heart  shall  follow  it. 

16.  Who  will  rise  up  for  me  against  the  evil  doers  ?  or  shall  stand  up  for 
me  against  the  workers  of  iniquity  ? 

17.  Unless  the  Lord  had  been  my  help,  my  soul  had  almost  dwelt  in  silenc«». 

18.  When  I  said,  my  foot  slippeth  ;  thy  mercy,  0  Lord,  held  me  up. 


175 

19.  In  the  multitude  of  my  thoughts  within  me  thy  comforts  delight  my 

BOUI. 

20.  Shall  the  throne  of  iniquity  have  fellowship  with  thee,  which  frameth 
mischief  by  a  law  ? 

21.  They  gather  themselves  together  against  the  soul  of  the  righteous,  and 
condemn  the  innocent  blood. 

22.  But  the  Lord  is  my  defence;  and  my  God  is  the  rock  of  my  refuge. 

23.  And  he  shall  bring  upon  them  their  own  iniquity,  and  shall  cut  them  off 
in  their  own  wickedness ;  yea,  the  Lord  our  God  shall  cut  them  off. 

Rev.  Dr.  Rogers  then  made  the  following  prayer  : 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God.  Thou  art  our  God  and  we  will  praise  Thee. 
Thou  wort  our  father's  God  and  we  will  magnify  Thy  holy  name.  Thou  art 
the  high  and  lofty  one  that  inhabiteth  eternity.  Thou  doest  all  things  according 
to  Thy  will,  among  the  armies  of  heaven  and  among  the  inhabitants  of  earth. 
None  can  stay  Thy  hands  or  say,  "What  doest  Thou?"  Thy  way  is  in  the  sea, 
and  Thy  path  in  the  great  waters,  and  Thy  footsteps  are  not  known.  Clouds 
and  darkness  are  around  and  beneath,  but  righteousness  and  judgment  are  the 
habitudes  of  Thy  throne.  Thou  hast  in  Thy  inscrutable  Providence  called  us 
together  in  sadness  and  sorrow,  and  stricken  a  mourning  people.  They  bow 
beneath  the  stroke  of  Thy  hand,  and  w.e  lift  up  our  hearts  to  Thee  out  of  the 
depths  of  the  calamity.  Thou  hast  removed  by  a  sudden,  violent,  and  unex- 
pected blow  our  honored  President.  Thou  hast  broken  our  strong  staff  and  our 
beautiful  rod,  and  from  one  end  of  this  land  to  the  other  the  sound  of  wailing 
and  of  woe  is  borne  on  every  breeze.  The  nation  follows  the  body  of  its  lamented 
chief  with  mourning  hearts  and  streaming  eyes  to  its  last  earthly  resting  place. 
We  humble  ourselves,  oh  God,  beneath  the  stroke  of  Thy  hand,  and  we  find 
comfort  and  hope  in  the  thought  that  it  is  not  an  enemy  that  has  dealt  us  the 
blow,  but  that  of  a  just  God,  in  His  infinite  wisdom,  and  who  doeth  all  things 
well ;  and  so  we  would  say  in  the  midst  of  our  sorrows  over  the  bier  of  our 
lamented  and  murdered  President,  "The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken 
away,  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord."  But  oh,  our  God,  while  we  mourn, 
we  thank  Thee  for  the  circumstances  of  mercy  which  are  mingled  with  this 
stroke.  We  bless  Thee  in  the  midst  of  our  sorrow  that  Thou  didst  give  us  Thy 
servant  to  be  the  leader  and  commander  of  Thy  people  in  times  of  peril.  And 
we  bless  Thee  that  Thou  didst  gird  him  with  wisdom  and  might  and  counsel  in 
the  field.  We  bless  Thee  that  Thou  didst  guide  him  in  all  the  so  difficult  and 
delicate  way,  and  didst  permit  him  to  live  so  long  and  do  so  much  for  the  benefit 
and  welfare  of  this  land.  And  we  bless  Thee  that  since  it  was  Thy  will  to 
take  him  away.  Thou  didst  remove  him  in  the  midst  of  his  race  with  honors, 
with  no  shadow  upon  his  fame,  but  to  be  cherished  in  the  memory  of  a  grateful 
people  to  the  latest  generations.  We  bless  Thee  that  Thou  didst  permit  our 
lamented  chief  to  see  this  atrocious  and  causeless  rebellion  crushed.  We  bless 
Thee  that  Thou  didst  permit  him  to  see  the  loved  banners  of  our  country  waving 
again  in  triumph  over  all  its  States  and  Territories.  We  bless  Thee  that  Thou 
didst  permit  him  to  bring  freedom  to  the  captive,  and  liberty  to  the  bondsman, 


176 

and  to  go  to  his  honored  grave  to  be  kept  ever  green  by  the  tears  of  a  grateful 
people,  having  done  his  work  and  done  it  well,  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  for  the 
benefit  of  hia  native  land.  And  while  we  sorrow,  we  sorrow  not  as  others 
who  have  no  hope.  We  bless  God  for  his  memory,  enshrined  in  our  deepest 
hearts.  Oh !  let  it  be  sacred  to  the  remotest  times  in  the  great  hearts  of  the 
American  people.  Let  it  be  an  inspiration  to  all  that  is  pure,  all  that  is  honest, 
all  that  is  faithful,  all  that  is  patriotic  ;  to  all  that  is  patient,  gentle,  loving,  and 
kind;  to  all  that  is  firm,  to  all  that  is  Christian;  and  let  peace,  with  freedom, 
with  justice,  with  righteousness,  and  with  Christianity,  raise  an  everlasting 
monument  above  the  spot  where  sleeps  his  honored  dust.  Our  Father,  we  com- 
mend to  Thee  the  country  for  which  he  loved  and  wept,  and  toiled  and  prayed 
and  died.  We  bless  Thee  that  Thou  hast  given  to  that  wearied  brain  rest — rest 
to  that  anxious  heart — rest  to  that  troubled  spirit — a  blessed  rest.  But  we  bless 
Thee  that  though  the  President  died,  the  republic  lives,  God  lives,  our  just  God, 
and  we  bless  Thee  that  though  our  Moses  led  the  people  through  the  wilder- 
ness to  the  borders  of  Canaan,  he  saw  as  from  Mount  Pisgah  the  glorious  land 
of  Promise,  and  laid  him  down  to  die,  that  Thou  hadst  another  Joshua  to  take 
his  work  upon  him  and  to  clear  this  beautiful  land  of  the  last  remnant  of  the 
rebellious  tribes.  Oh  !  God,  assist  our  new  President  in  his  work;  let  him  ad- 
minister justice  and  maintain  truth;  and  with  purity,  with  honesty,  with  piety 
and  patriotism  like  his  honored  predecessor,  let  him  accomplish  the  great  and 
delicate  work  that  yet  remains  to  be  done,  and  to  be  a  benefit  to  the  land. 
Remember  the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  oh  Thou  who  art  the  widow's  God  and 
Father  of  the  fatherless.  Have  them  in  Thy  holy  keeping,  and  wipe  their 
tears  away;  and  let  them  be  cherished  by  the  sympathies  and  prayers  of  a  grate- 
ful people.  We  ask  Thy  tender  mercy  in  behalf  of  Thy  servant,  the  Secretary 
of  State.  Oh!  Lord,  heal  his  wounds,  make  his  broken  bones  rejoice,  raise  him 
up  from  the  bed  of  weakness  whereon  he  lies,  and  let  his  counsel  yet  be  given 
to  his  country,  and  his  life  be  spared  to  her  services ;  and,  oh  Lord,  let  thy  bless- 
ing be  on  the  land  in  all  its  beauty  and  glory.  Let  our  father's  God  be  our 
God,  and  never  in  all  its  after  history  let  the  least  vestige  of  treason  or  of 
slavery  do  anything  to  dishonor  God  or  man,  or  rest  as  a  dark  curse  upon  us. 
But  let  the  whole  country  be  the  home  of  freedom,  of  intelligence,  of  true  and 
pure  Christianity — a  beacon  light  among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  a  great 
benefactor  to  the  people.  Hear  this  our  prayer.  Let  Thy  blessing  be  upon  us 
all ;  forgive  our  sins,  and  graciously  hear,  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
to  whom  with  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  be  honor  and  glory,  world  without  end. 
Amen. 

Rabbi  Isaacs,  of  the  Broadway  Tabernacle,  then  followed, 
and  read  the  following  selections  from  the  Holy  Scriptures  : 

Remember,  0  Lord,  Thy  tender  mercies  and  Thy  loving  kindness ;  for  they 
are  eternal.  Grant  us  to  be  among  those  who  die  by  Thy  hand,  0  Lord  !  those 
who  die  bj'  old  age,  whose  lot  is  eternal  life;  yea,  who  enjoy  even  here  Thy 
bidden  treasures.     His  soul  shall  dwell  at  ease,  and  his  seed  shall  inherit  the 


177 

land.  Therefore  will  we  not  fear,  though  the  earth  be  overturned  and  though 
the  mountains  be  hurled  in  the  midst  of  the  seas. 

He  redeemeth  thy  life  from  destruction  ;  He  crowneth  thee  with  loving  kind- 
ness and  tender  mercies.  Wherefore  doth  living  man  complain,  he  who  can 
master  his  sins?  Small  and  great  are  there ;  and  the  servant  is  free  from  his 
master.  For  He  remembered  that  they  were  but  flesh ;  a  wind  that  passeth 
away  and  cometh  not  again.  All  flesh  shall  perish  together,  and  man  shall  re- 
turn unto  dust — who  rejoice  even  to  exultation  and  are  glad  when  they  find  a 
grave. 

And  such  a  frail  mortal  shall  be  more  just  than  God?  Shall  man  be  more 
pure  than  his  Maker  ?  In  God  I  will  praise  His  word ;  in  the  Lord,  I  will  praise 
His  word.  Man  is  like  to  vanity ;  his  days  are  as  a  shadow  of  a  thing  that 
passeth  away.  Be  kind,  0  Lord,  unto  those  that  are  good,  and  unto  them  that 
are  upright  in  their  hearts.  Let  the  pious  exult  in  glory ;  let  them  sing  aloud 
upon  their  couches.  Then  shall  Thy  light  break  forth  as  in  the  morning,  and 
Thy  health  shall  spring  forth  speedily,  and  Thy  righteousness  shall  precede 
Thee ;  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be  thy  reward.  The  Lord  shall  preserve  thee 
from  all  evil.     He  shall  preserve  thy  soul. 

Behold,  the  keeper  of  Israel  doth  neither  slumber  nor  sleep.  The  Eternal 
killeth  and  maketh  alive ;  He  bringeth  down  to  the  grave  and  bringeth  up. 
Wilt  Thou  not  turn  and  revive  us,  that  we  may  rejoice  in  Thee?  Let  us,  there- 
fore, trust  in  the  Lord ;  for  with  the  Lord  is  mercy,  and  with  Him  is  plenteous 
redemption. 

One  generation  passeth  away  and  another  generation  cometh ;  but  the  earth 
abideth  forever.  For  the  word  of  the  Lord  is  upright,  and  all  His  works  aro 
done  in  faithfulness.  The  dust  shall  return  to  the  earth  as  it  was,  and  the  spirit 
shall  return  unto  God  who  gave  it.  His  seed  shall  be  mighty  upon  earth  ;  the 
generation  of  the  upright  shall  be  blessed.  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath 
taken  away.     Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord. 

And  as  for  him,  righteousness  shall  precede  him  and  form  steps  for  his  way. 

Ye  are  blessed  of  the  Eternal,  who  made  heaven  and  earth. 

The  Rabbi  then  made  the  following  prayer  : 

Thou,  whose  attributes  are  omnipotence  and  immutability,  mighty  and  in- 
visible. Thine  eye  unseen,  and  Thy  direction  unknown,  guides  ;  Thy  mercy  un- 
bounded, upholds  ;  our  God,  our  Father.  From  hearts  penetrated  by  grief,  we 
pray ;  oppressed  by  the  weight  of  our  feelings,  bruised  in  spirit,  we  most 
earnestly  implore  Thee,  visit  us  not  in  Thine  anger,  nor  chastise  us  according  to 
our  works.  Enter  not  into  judgment  with  us,  look  not  to  our  iniquities. 
As  frail,  erring  creatures,  in  faltering  accents  we  confess  our  guilt.  Who 
can  be  justified  before  Thy  immaculate  purity  ?  In  humble  and  reveren- 
tial awe,  we  approach  Thee,  invoking  Thee  to  inspire  us  with  a  proper 
spirit  and  temper  of  heart  and  mind  under  the  powers  of  Thy  providence.  God 
of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob,  millions  of  beings  Thy  will  has  created 
this  day  fall  prostrate  at  Thy  throne,  offering  the  overflowing  of  their  hearts 
and  their  resignation  to  Thy  will,  as  the  homage  of  their  adoration.  The  io 
12 


178 

habitants  of  this  land  are  over-burdened  with  grief.  The  good  being  who,  like 
Aaron  of  old,  "stood  between  the  living  and  the  dead,"  so  that  the  war  which 
decimated  the  land  might  cease,  alas!  he  is  no  more.  Thy  servant,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  has,  without  a  warning,  been  summoned  before  Thy  august  presence.  He 
has  served  the  people  of  his  afflicted  land  faithfully,  zealously,  honestly,  and,  we 
would  fain  hope,  in  accordance  with  Thy  supreme  will.  0  that  "  his  righteous- 
ness may  precede  him  and  form  steps  for  his  way"  to  the  heavenly  abode  of 
bliss  ;  that  Thy  angels  of  mercy  may  be  commissioned  to  convey  his  soul  to  the 
spot  reserved  for  martyred  saints :  that  the  suddenness  with  which  one  of  the 
worst  of  beings  deprived  him  of  life  may  atone  for  any  errors  which  he  may 
have  committed.  Almighty  God !  every  heart  is  pierced  by  anguish — every 
countenance  furrowed  with  grief,  at  our  separation  from  one  we  revered  and 
loved.  We  beseech  Thee,  in  this  period  of  our  sorrow  and  despondency,  to 
soothe  our  pains  and  calm  our  griefs;  and,  as  in  days  of  old,  before  the  sun  of 
Eli  went  down,  Thou  didst  cause  that  of  Samuel  to  beam  upon  Israel,  so  may 
it  be  Thy  divine  will,  as  the  sun  of  our  deeply  lamented  Abraham  Lincoln  had 
Bcarcely  set,  and  darkness  covered  the  people,  that  the  sun  of  Andrew  Johnson, 
which  has  burst  upon  the  gloom,  may  shed  its  brilliant  rays  as  sparkling  it  is 
borne  amid  purity  and  innocence.  Our  Father  who  art  in  Heaven,  show  us 
this  kindness,  so  that  our  tears  may  cease  to  depict  our  sorrow  and  give  place 
to  the  joyful  hope  that,  through  Thy  goodness,  peace  and  concord  may  supersede 
war  and  dissension,  and  our  beloved  Union,  restored  to  its  former  tranquility, 
may  be  enabled  to  carry  out  Thy  wish  for  the  benefit  and  the  happiness  of 
humanity.  We  pray  Thee,  do  this ;  if  not  for  our  sakes,  for  the  sake  of  our 
little  ones  unsullied  by  sin,  who  lisp  Thy  holy  name  ;  with  hands  uplifted,  with 
the  importunity  of  spotless  hearts,  they  re-echo  our  supplication.  Let  the  past 
be  the  end  of  our  sorrow,  the  future  the  harbinger  of  peace  and  salvation  to  all 
who  seek  Thee  in  truth.    Amen. 

Rev.  Dr.  Osgood  then  recited  tlie  following  ode  for  the  fu- 
neral of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  W.  C.  Bryant : 

Oh,  slow  to  smite  and  swift  to  spare, 

Gentle,  and  merciful,  and  just! 
Who  in  the  fear  of  God  did'st  bear 

The  sword  of  power — a  nation's  trust. 

In  sorrow  by  thy  bier  we  stand, 

Amid  the  awe  that  hushes  all, 
And  speak  the  anguish  of  a  land 

That  shook  with  horror  at  thy  fall. 

Thy  task  is  done — the  bond  are  free; 

We  bear  thee  to  an  honored  grave, 
Whose  noblest  monument  shall  be 

The  broken  fetters  of  the  slave. 


179 

Pure  was  thy  life  ;  its  bloody  close 

Hath  placed  thee  with  the  sons  of  light, 

Among  the  noble  host  of  those 

Who  perished  in  the  cause  of  right. 

THE  BENEDICTION. 

At  the  conclusion,  the  chairman  announced  that  the  Most 
Reverend  Archbishop  McCloskey  was  so  fatigued  from  his 
long  attendance  in  the  funeral  cortege  that  he  was  unable  to  be 
present  to  pronounce  the  closing  benediction  ;  the  venerable 
prelate's  absence  would  be  filled  by  Professor  Hitchcock. 

The  funeral  train  left  the  city  of  New  York  at  4  o'clock, 
April  25th.  Hundreds  of  thousands  were  in  attendance.  As 
the  cars  moved  out,  two  dense  lines  were  on  either  side.  Men 
and  women  wept  like  children.  The  lame  and  crippled  had 
hobbled  to  the  depot,  and  merchants  and  mechanics,  lawyers, 
doctors,  and  ministers,  and  the  entire  population  stood  with 
uncovered  heads  as  the  sacred  ashes  were  borne  onward.  New 
York  was  bowed  down  with  grief  for  the  loss  of  the  murdered 
martyr  President.  At  the  way  stations — at  Manhattanville, 
Yonkers,  Dobbs's  Ferry,  Tarrytown,  and  Sing-Sing — large 
crowds  of  people  were  waiting,  and  gave  evidence  of  their 
deep  grief.  The  men  remained  uncovered,  and  the  women 
looked  sorrowfully  at  the  fleeting  cortege  containing  the  loved 
and  lost. 

At  Yonkers  was  a  beautiful  flag,  with  the  inscription, "  Yonk- 
ers mourns  with  the  natioh."  The  women  of  this  place  were 
greatly  affected,  and  waved  their  handkercliiefs  while  the  tears 
fell  down  their  cheeks. 

At  Irvington  about  7,000  people  were  assembled.  The  sta- 
tion was  beautifully  draped,  with  the  inscriptions,  "  The  hon- 
ored dead,"  and  "  We  mourn  the  nation's  loss."  Sadness  was 
depicted  on  every  countenance. 

At  Tarrytown,  the  train  passed  under  the  drooping  arch 
made  of  American  flags.  There  were  beautiful  inscriptions  on 
the  depot.  Twenty-four  young  ladies,  dressed  in  white,  were 
standing  under  the  dome,  made  of  our  country's  flag,  studded 
with  flowers  and  draped  with  black  velvet.  The  large  crowd 
of  spectators  looked  sad  and  mournful. 


180 

At  Sing-Sing  there  was  an  immense  assemblage.  The  train 
passed  under  an  arch  eighteen  feet  from  base  to  base,  and  four 
feet  thick,  made  of  alternate  stripes  of  black  and  white  muslin, 
and  the  verges  covered  with  black  velvet.  It  was  covered  with 
evergreens,  and  on  the  top,  in  the  centre,  was  a  statue  of  the 
Goddess  of  Liberty,  robed  in  white,  and  a  chaplet  of  evergreens 
around  her  neck.  In  large  black  letters  on  either  side  was  the 
inscription,  "We  mourn  our  country's  loss."  Many  other  mot- 
toes were  conspicuous,  among  them,  "  He  died  for  Truth,  Jus- 
tice, and  Mercy." 

At  Peekskill  great  crowds  were  assembled.  The  depot  was 
heavily  draped.  In  the  centre  was  a  portrait  of  the  President, 
encircled  with  roses  and  tassels  of  red,  white,  and  blue.  A 
company  of  firemen,  and  the  Highland  Grays,  a  military  organ- 
ization of  boys,  marched  around,  preceded  by  drooping  flags. 

At  Garrison's  Landing,  opposite  West  Point,  Gen.  Galium 
and  staff,  and  all  the  College  Professors,  with  three  companies 
of  Cadets,  numbering  about  1,000,  came  across  the  Hudson  to 
meet  and  greet  the  funeral  cortege.  A  very  large  concourse  of 
people  were  also  present,  who  evinced  their  sorrow  for  tlie  dead. 

At  Cold  Spring  a  mournful  crowd  stood  around  a  raised 
platform  draped  in  black.  In  the  centre  was  a  young  lady 
dressed  as  the  Goddess  of  Liberty,  with  a  black  veil  over  her 
face,  and  holding,  as  she  knelt,  our  country's  flag  in  her  hand. 
On  her  right  was  a  boy  kneeling,  dressed  as  a  soldier,  and  on 
the  left,  a  boy  kneeling,  dressed  as  a  sailor  The  depot  was 
handsomely  draped. 

At  Fishkill  a  crowd  of  people  lined  both  sides  of  the  track. 
The  depot  was  heavily  draped.  In  the  centre,  surrounded  by  ever- 
green, was  the  motto,  "In  God  we  trust."  Opposite  Fishkill, 
across  the  Hudson,  is  Newburg,  where  flags  were  flying  at  half- 
mast,  thus  adding  to  the  universal  grief.  From  the  very  house 
where  General  Washington  had  his  headquarters  in  Revolution- 
ary days,  when  George  the  Third  enslaved  us  with  British  bay- 
onets, could  be  seen  floating  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  drooped  and 
draped  in  memory  of  our  assassinated  chief.  Thus  is  entwined 
the  sacred  history  of  the  Father  of  His  Country  and  the  sa- 
viour of  His  Country. 

At  Poughkeepsie  an  immense  assemblage  greeted  the  train  ; 


181 

the  men  with  heads  uncovered,  the  women  and  children  having 
miniature  mourning  flags.  A  committee  of  ladies  asked  per- 
mission to  place  a  wreath  of  roses  on  the  martyr's  coffin,  which 
was  granted;  Mrs.  Prof.  Eastman,  Mrs.  Gen.  Davis,  Mrs.  Mayor 
Irviog,  Mrs.  James  Winslow,  Mrs.  D.  Harvey,  and  the  Misses 
Van  Kleck,  entered  the  car  and  fulfilled  their  holy  mission. 
The  National  Business  College,  Professor  Eastman  leading, 
had  1,000  pupils  formed  in  line,  with  uncovered  heads.  The 
splendid  College  Band  played  a  solemn  air.  Minute  guns 
were  fired  during  the  fifteen  minutes'  stay;  and  also,  during  the 
time,  a  number  of  ladies  passed  through  the  car  containing  the 
President  and  his  little  son  Willie. 

At  Strasburg  a  beautiful  circle  of  light  was  displayed,  and 
a  large  assemblage  was  standing  on  the  platform. 

At  Rhinebeck,  crowds  were  assembled  with  torches.  A  band 
was  on  the  verandah  of  the  hotel,  playing  appropriate  airs. 

At  Barrytown  a  procession  with  lighted  torches  and  drooped 
banners  were  marching. 

At  Tivolia  the  people  were  assembled  in  large  groups,  with 
lighted  lamps.  The  depot  was  draped,  and  flags  drooping. 
Some  fine  residences  near  Tivolia  were  handsomely  illuminated 
and  festooned  with  flags. 

At  Catskill  large  bonfires  were  lighted,  and  crowds  of  peo- 
ple were  present.  The  United  States  vessels  in  the  river  had 
their  flags  draped  at  half-mast. 

At  Hudson  a  large  assemblage  was  gathered.  The  Hudson 
House  and  American  Hotel  were  illuminated  and  draped  in 
mourning.     Minute  guns  were  fired. 

At  East  Albany,  Gen.  Rathbone  and  stafi",  the  military  a»d 
civic  organizations,  and  a  vast  concourse  of  people  were  assem- 
oled  at  the  depot.  Thousands  of  lighted  torches,  and  banners 
draped  in  mourning,  made  the  scene  impressive.  The  people 
flocked  around  the  car  containing  the  President's  remains, 
seeking  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  coffin.  The  depot  was  heavily 
draped.  Conspicuous  was  a  magnificent  American  flag  twen- 
ty-five feet  long  and  eight  feet  wide,  on  which  was  elaborately 
worked  thirty-four  stars,  all  surrounded  by  black  drapery. 


182 


FUNERAL  HONORS  AT  ALBANY,  NEW  YORK. 

The  spectacle  presented  in  Albany,  Wednesday,  the  25th  of 
April,  was,  in  the  highest  degree,  solemn  and  imposing.  Thou- 
sands from  the  surrounding  cities  and  villages — from  distant 
portions  of  the  State — from  Vermont  and  Massachusetts — came 
in  to  pay  the  last  tribute  of  respect  to  the  revered  dead.  Every 
train  and  boat  and  omnibus  was  crowded — every  avenue  lead- 
ing to  the  city  was  tli rouged  with  vehicles.  Thousands  viewed 
the  remains  during  the  latter  part  of  the  night  and  the  earlier 
hours  of  morning  ;  while  before  nine  o'clock  in  the  forenoon, 
State  street,  from  its  foot  to  the  Capitol,  was  a  solid  mass  of 
humanity. 

Arrived  at  the  Park,  the  gate  at  the  front  entrance  was 
opened,  and  the  cortege  conveyed  the  remains  to  the  Assembly 
Chamber,  which  was  tastefully  draped. 

The  Assembly  Rooms  in  the  Capitol  were  visited  by 
thousands  of  people  while  the  remains  lay  in  state.  The  degree 
of  feeling  and  sympathy  manifested  has  never  had  a  parallel. 
Voices  were  hushed  and  hearts  beat  heavily  as  the  people 
pressed  forward.  The  silence  of  the  grave  reigned.  The 
gazers  looked  sorrowfully  on  the  cold  and  sacred  clay  with 
throbbing  hearts.  They  felt  in  their  inmost  soul  as  if  they  had 
lost  their  dearest  household  treasure.  Many  eyes  were  drowned 
with  tears,  as  they  looked  on  the  face  of  the  great  martyr. 
Strong  men  wept  like  children  as  they  witnessed  the  solemn 
train  and  listened  to  the  wailing  notes  of  the  death  dirge. 
Even  the  most  indifferent  felt  that  it  was  not  merely  a  Ruler 
but  a  Friend  whom  the  people  had  lost. 

The  city  was  draped  in  sable,  and  everywhere  were  seen  re- 
minders of  the  sadness  pervading  the  hearts  of  the  people.  The 
Assembly  room,  where  the  remains  lay,  was  most  appropriately 
decorated.     Albany  deeply  sympathizes  in  the  Nation's  grief. 

Among  the  touching  and  suggestive  tokens  of  sorrow  at 
Albany  were  tlio  mottoes  inscribed  on  public  buildings  and 
private  mansions. 


183 

The  following  was  suspended  over  the  Speaker's  chair : 

I  have  an  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the 

Government. 

—Lincoln. 

The  State  Geological  Rooms  were  draped  and  festooned, 
with  this  sentiment  displayed  in  large  letters  : 

ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

His  faithful  heart  the  bulwark  of  the  Nation.  The  Nation  erects  his  tomb  in 
her  heart  of  hearts.  His  greatness  she  admires.  His  goodness  commands  her 
eternal  love  and  admiration. 

Major  General  Robinson's  headquarters  were  ornamented 
with  a  variety  of  flags  and  drapery,  with  the  following  in  large 
letters,  reaching  the  entire  length  of  the  building  : 

The  great  heart  of  the  Nation  throbs  heavily  at  the  Portals  of  his  Grave. 

Suspended  in  front  of  the  offices  of  the  Assessor  and  Col- 
lector of  Internal  Revenue  was  the  following  : 

With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all;  with  firmness  in  the  right, 
as  God  gives  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in. 

— A.  Lwcour. 

On  business  and  private  houses  were  read  the  following  : 

The  eye  of  the  sage  and  the  heart  of  the  brave 
Are  hidden  and  lost  in  the  depth  of  the  grave. 

All  joy  is  darkened ;  the  mirth  of  the  land  is  gone. 

And  the  mourners  go  about  the  streets. 

And  the  victory  that  day  was  turned  into  mourning  unto  all  the  people. 

His  life  was  gentle,  and  the  elements  were  so  mixed  in  him  that  Nature 
might  stand  up  and  say  to  all  the  world — this  was  a  man. 

Washington,  the  Father  of  his  Country;  Lincoln,  the  Saviour  of  his  Coun- 
try. 

With  the  words : 

The  Martyr  to  Liberty. 

The  mournful  scenes  of  the  day  made  a  profound  and  abiding 


184 

impression  upon  the  people.  They  tended  to  chasten  and  sanc- 
tify the  public  grief,  increased  the  popular  reverence  for  the 
murdered  President,  and  enshrined  his  memory  more  deeply  and 
sacredly  in  the  popular  affections.  They  breathed  into  all 
hearts  something  of  that  earnest  yet  magnanimous  spirit  that 
made  Mr.  Lincoln's  last  moments  so  glorious. 

From  Albany  to  Buffalo,  the  funeral  cars  passed  through  the 
populous  and  central  part  of  the  Empire  State,  and  at  every 
point  symlx)ls  of  sorrow  were  displayed.  On  the  hills  and  in 
the  valleys,  groups  assembled,  with  flags  draped  in  mourning, 
and  other  emblems  of  sorrow,  and  saluted  with  solemn  rever- 
ence the  passing  train. 

At  Schenectady,  Utica,  Rome,  Oneida,  Syracuse,  the  city  of 
Rochester,  and  the  smaller  towns,  great  crowds  were  assembled, 
and  draped  flags  were  waved,  funeral  dirges  were  sung,  bon- 
fires blazed,  bells  tolled,  minute  guns  were  fired,  and  every 
emblem  of  sorrow  manifested.  One  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
affecting  scenes  was  that  of  the  farmers  and  their  families, 
gathered  in  groups  around  bonfires,  and  waiting  in  the  silent 
hour  of  the  night  to  add  their  tokens  of  grief  for  the  lamented 
dead. 

BUFFALO. 

The  funeral  train  reached  Buffalo  on  Thursday  morning,  the 
27th  of  April.  The  body  was  taken  from  the  funeral  car  and 
borne  by  soldiers  up  into  St.  James's  Hall,  and  deposited  on  the 
dais,  in  the  presence  of  the  accompanying  officers,  the  guards 
of  honor,  and  the  Union  Continentals,  commanded  by  N.  K. 
Hall. 

The  remains  were  placed  under  a  crape  canopy,  extending 
from  the  ceiling  to  the  floor.  The  space  was  lit  by  a  large 
chandelier.  In  the  gallery,  outside  the  canopy,  was  the  Buffalo 
St.  Cecilia  Society,  an  amateur  American  music  association, 
who,  as  the  remains  were  brouglit  in,  sang  with  deep  pathos 
the  dirge,  "  Rest,  spirit,  rest,"  affecting  every  licart  and  moving 
many  to  tears.  The  society  tlien  placed  an  elegantly  formed 
harp,  made  of  choice  white  flowers,  at  tlie  head  of  the  coffin,  as 
a  tribute  from   them  to  the  honored  dead.     Shortly  after  this 


185 

the  public  were  admitted.  Ex-President  Fillmore  was  among 
the  civilians  escorting  the  remains  to  St.  James's  Hall.  Also 
Company  D,  Seventy-fourth  Regiment,  Captain  J.  C.  Bowles. 

The  remains  were  visited  through  the  day,  from  half-past 
nine  this  morning  until  eight  this  evening,  by  an  immense  num- 
ber of  persons. 

During  the  morning  there  was  placed  at  the  foot  of  the  cof- 
fin an  anchor  of  white  camelias,  from  the  ladies  of  the  Unita- 
rian Church  of  Buffalo.  A  cross  of  white  flowers  was  also  laid 
upon  the  coffin.  At  the  request  of  Major  General  Dix  and 
others,  the  officers  of  the  St.  Cecilia  Society  repeated  the  dirge, 
which  was  sung  with  solemn  and  touching  effect. 

At  all  the  towns  and  stations  between  Buffalo  and  Cleve- 
land, through  which  the  train  passed  in  the  night,  multitudes 
had  assembled,  some  bearing  lanterns  and  mourning  flags  in 
their  hands,  while  on  their  houses  was  plainly  discernable  the 
usual  drapery  and  mottoes  expressive  of  the  prevailing  grief. 

At  Dunkirk  the  platform  was  elaborately  decorated.  Fes- 
toons of  evergreens  extended  all  along  the  eaves  of  the  struc- 
ture, while  from  the  ceiling  gracefully  drooped  white  and  black 
folds.  The  background,  covered  with  flags  interlaced  with 
crape,  completed  the  artistical  arrangement.  But  the  chief  fea- 
ture was  the  group  of  thirty-six  young  ladies,  representing  the 
States  of  the  Union.  They  were  dressed  in  white,  each  with 
a  broad  black  scarf  resting  on  the  slioulder,  and  holding  in 
the  hand  a  national  flag.  The  tolling  of  bells,  the  solemn  music 
of  an  instrumental  band,  and  the  firing  of  minute  guns  contrib- 
uted to  the  interest  of  the  scene. 

CEREMONIES  AT  CLEVELAND. 

On  Friday  morning,  the  28th  of  April,  the  funeral  cortege 
reached  the  city  of  Cleveland.  The  remains,  as  they  passed 
from  the  Empire  State  of  the  Union  into  the  Empire  State  of 
the  "West,  were  received  and  escorted  to  Cleveland  by  the  fol- 
lowing officers  and  eminent  citizens  of  Ohio,  viz:  Governor 
Brough  and  staff ;  General  Cowan,  Adjutant  General  ;  General 
Barlow,  Quartermaster  General ;  Surgeon  General  Barr,  and 
Colonel  Maxwell.    Also  Major  General  Hooker,  commanding 


186 

the  Department  of  the  Ohio,  with  his  staff,  as  follows  :  Colonel 
Swords,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Simpson,  Lieutenant  Colonel  La 
throp.  Major  McFeely,  Major  Bannister,  and  Captain  Taylor 
Also  United  States  Senator  Sherman,  Hon.  S.  Galloway,  Hon 
O.  Waters,  and  Major  Montgomery.  Also  the  following  gen 
tlemen,  committee  from  Cleveland  :  Hon.  R.  P.  Spaulding,  ex 
Governor  David  Tod,  Thomas  Jones,  Jr.,  Colonel  Anson  Stager 
Amasa  Stone,  Jr.,  Hon.  H.  B.  Payne,  Hon.  John  A.  Foot,  Hon 
H.  V.  Wilson,  Stillman  Witt,  Ansel  Roberts,  William  Bing 
ham,  Hon.  W.  B.  Castle,  Charles  Hickox,  John  Martin,  Hon 
W.  Collins,  H.  N.  Johnson,  Dr.  G.  C.  B.  Weber,  Dr.  Proctor 
Thayer,  H.  B.  Hurlbut,  Jacob  Hovey,  and  James  Warsick. 

The  importance  and  solemnity  of  the  occasion  was  evidently 
appreciated  by  all.  The  dense  crowds  that  lined  the  streets 
from  the  Euclid  street  depot  to  the  public  square,  the  numerous 
badges  of  mourning  worn,  the  heavily  draped  buildings,  and 
the  uniform  stillness  and  decorum  of  the  immense  gathering  of 
people  testified  to  the  respect  and  love  borne  to  the  deceased 
by  the  people  of  Cleveland  and  the  surrounding  country.  The 
immense  crowd  was  hourly  added  to  by  the  trains  and  steamers 
arriving  from  different  points. 

The  scene  when  the  procession  started  was  very  solemn  and 
impressive.  A  slight  rain  fell,  falling  like  tears  on  the  remains 
of  the  good  man  in  whose  honor  the  crowd  had  gathered,  but 
not  enough  to  be  heeded  by  the  people  assembled.  The  street 
was  lined  with  a  continuous  wall  of  people,  and  the  yards  and 
houses  were  also  crowded.  The  long  perspective  of  Euclid 
street  stretched  away  in  unrivalled  beauty,  and  the  procession, 
with  its  solid  column,  great  length,  and  imposing  display,  made 
up  a  scene  never  equalled  in  Cleveland. 

The  cofBn  was  placed  in  a  hearse,  the  roofing  of  which  was 
covered  with  the  national  flag,  with  black  plumes  and  otherwise 
tastefully  and  appropriately  adorned.  The  military  escort  em- 
braced Major  General  Hooker  and  staff,  and  Governor  Brough, 
of  Ohio,  and  staff,  and  the  escort  and  civic  guard  of  honor  was 
followed  by  the  United  States  civil  officers,  veteran  soldiers, 
members  of  the  City  Council  and  city  officers  of  Cleveland  and 
other  cities,  members  of  the  bar,  the  Board  of  Trade,  Knights 
Templar,  the  Orders  of  Masons  and  Odd  Fellows,  Temperance 


187 

Societies,  Fenian  Brotherhood,  St.  Vincent's  Society,  the  Ger- 
man Benevolent  Society,  the  Equal  Rights  League,  <fec.,  and  all 
the  benevolent  and  other  associations  and  citizens. 

The  procession  embraced  all  conditions  of  the  people,  with- 
out distinction  of  party  or  religion,  and  it  presented  a  fine 
appearance  as  it  moved  through  the  streets  of  this  truly  beau- 
tiful city,  from  Euclid  street  to  Erie,  down  Erie  to  Superior, 
and  thence  to  the  Park.  The  sidewalks  were  densely  crowded 
with  mournful-looking  spectators,  while  thousands  of  persons 
beheld  the  cortege  from  the  steps  and  windows  of  the  beautiful 
residences  which  line  the  entire  route.  Emblems  of  mourning 
were  everywhere  prominent,  with  expressive  mottoes. 

In  the  Park  had  been  erected  a  building  especially  for  the 
reception  of  the  remains,  to  which  they  were  conveyed.  The 
cofl&n  rested  on  the  dais,  about  two  feet  above  the  floor.  On 
the  four  corners  stood  columns,  supporting  a  canopy.  The  col- 
umns were  draped  and  wreathed  with  evergreens  and  white 
flowers  in  the  most  beautiful  manner — black  clotli  falling  as 
curtains,  and  fringed  with  silver,  caught  and  looped  back  to 
these  columns.  The  floor  of  the  dais  was  covered  with  flowers, 
and  a  figure  of  the  Goddess  of  Liberty  was  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  coffin. 

After  the  coffin  was  opened,  the  Right  Rev.  Charles  Pettit 
Mcllvaine,  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Ohio,  advanced  to  the 
coffin,  and  read  from  the  burial  service  of  the  Episcopal  Church: 

I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life,  saith  the  Lord :  he  that  believeth  in  me, 
though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live  ;  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in 
me  3hall  never  die. 

We  brought  nothing  into  the  world,  and  it  is  certain  we  can  carry  nothing 
out.  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away  ;  blessed  be  the  name  of 
the  Lord. 

Man  that  is  born  of  a  woman  hath  but  a  short  time  to  live,  and  is  full  of 
misery.  He  cometh  up,  and  is  cut  down,  like  a  flower ;  he  fleeth  as  it  were  a 
shadow,  and  never  continueth  in  one  stay. 

In  the  midst  of  life  we  are  in  death;  of  whom  may  we  seek  for  succor  but 
of  thee,  0  Lord,  who  for  our  sins  art  justly  displeased? 

The  Bishop  then  offered  an  appropriate  prayer,  in  the  course 
of  which  he  asked  the  blessing  of  Heaven  on  the  immediate 
family  of  the  deceased,  and  a  sanctification  of  the  event  which 


188 

had  called  the  nation  to  mourn  to  the  good  of  him  who  had 
succeeded  to  the  chief  magistracy.  He  then  read  a  part  of  the 
funeral  service  of  the  Episcopal  church,  slightly  altering  the 
text  to  suit  the  occasion.  Those  services  were  intensely  sol- 
emn, and  moved  many  of  the  listeners  to  tears. 

The  number  who  witnessed  the  remains  of  the  President 
during  the  day  was  one  hundred  and  eighty  a  minute.  Two 
rows  of  spectators  were  constantly  passing,  one  on  eacli 
side  of  the  coffin.  The  lid  was  freshly  covered  with  flowers 
in  the  form  of  harps,  crosses,  and  bouquets,  gathered  in  the  hot- 
houses of  Cleveland,  and  laid  upon  the  coffin  by  ladies  repre- 
senting the  Soldiers'  Relief  Association. 

As  the  funeral  pageant  closed,  and  the  remains  of  the  illus- 
trious dead  passed  away,  the  people  of  Cleveland  responded  to 
these  well  chosen  words  of  their  public  organ :  "  Nothing  of 
him  now  is  left  us  but  his  shining  example — nothing  but  a  mem- 
ory which  is  blessed — the  memory  of  the  just. 

"  The  broad  prairie,  from  whose  boundless  generosity  he 
drew  inspiration,  opens  its  bosom  to  receive  him.  Moisten, 
sweet  dews,  the  light  sod  that  covers  him  ;  sing,  gentle  breezes, 
his  triumphant  requiem ;  weave,  gentle  flowers,  a  perpetual 
chaplet  above  him." 

FUNERAL  HONORS  AT  COLUMBUS,  OHIO. 

The  remains  of  President  Lincoln  reached  Columbus,  the 
capital  of  the  State,  on  Saturday  morning,  the  29th  of  April. 
Governor  Brough  had,  in  an  official  order,  indicated  the  time  and 
manner  of  the  honors  to  be  rendered  to  the  illustrious  dead  in 
Ohio,  as  follows  : 

Gekeeal  Headquarters,  State  op  Ohio,  A.  G.  0., 

Columbus,  April  21. 
General  Order  No.  4. 

The  remains  of  the  late  President  Lincoln,  in  transit  to  their  final  resting 
place  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  will  arrive  at  Cleveland  on  Friday,  the  2Sth  inst., 
7.30  A.  M.  Leaving  Cleveland  at  midnight  on  the  same  day,  they  will  arrive 
at  Columbus  at  7.30  of  Saturday,  the  29th  inst.,  and  will  leave  Columbus  for 
Indianapolis,  via  the  Great  Central  Railroad,  at  8  o'clock  P.  I\I.  of  the  same 
day. 

A  national  salute  of  thirty-six  guns  will  be  fired  at  Cleveland  at  6.30  on  the 


189 

morning  of  the  28th  inst,.  and  one  gun  at  the  expiration  of  each  half  hour 
during  the  day  until  sunset. 

A  similar  salute  will  be  fired  at  Columbus  on  the  morning  of  the  29t.h  inst., 
and  during  the  day.  At  Columbus  the  remains  will  be  deposited  during  the 
day  in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol.  The  rotunda  and  the  building  will  be  ap- 
propriately draped  in  mourning,  and  such  arrangements  made  for  the  ingress 
and  egress  of  the  public  as  will  effectually  prevent  disturbance  or  confusion.  A 
sufficient  military  guard  will  be  stationed  in  the  building  and  grounds.  Maj. 
General  Joseph  Hooker,  U.  S.  Vols.,  Commanding  Northern  Department,  will 
have  charge  of  the  train  through  the  State.  The  procession  to  escort  the 
remains  from  and  to  the  depot  at  Cleveland  and  Columbus  will  be  organized 
and  controlled  by  officers  detailed  for  that  purpose  by  Major  General  Hooker. 
As  a  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  our  late  Chief  Magistrate,  it  is  sug- 
gested that  business  be  generally  suspended  during  the  day  on  the  28th  inst., 
at  Cleveland,  and  at  Columbus  on  the  29th  inst.;  that  all  the  flags  upon  public 
buildings,  and  upon  shipping  in  our  harbors  and  elsewhere,  be  displayed  at  half- 
mast,  and  suitably  draped  in  mourning,  during  the  time  when  the  remains  are 
in  the  State ;  and  that  our  citizens  generally  unite  in  manifesting,  in  every 
suitable  manner,  the  deep  grief  which  rests  upon  their  hearts  under  this  great 
national  bereavement. 

The  people  of  the  State  are  invited  to  be  present  at  Cleveland  or  Columbus, 

as  may  be  most  convenient  to  them,  and  unite  in  paying  the  last  sad  offices  of 

respect  to  the  remains  of  our  beloved  President,  who  has  sealed  his  devotion  to 

the  holy  cause  of  liberty  with  his  life-blood,  though  he  still  lives,  and  will  ever 

live,  in  the  affectionate  remembrance  of  a  patriotic  people.     Let  them  come  and 

gaze  upon  his  murdered  body,  and  there  renew  their  vows  of  allegiance,  and 

swear  anew  eternal  hostility  to  every  enemy  of  the  country. 

By  order  of  the  Governor : 

B.  R.  COWEN. 

Adjutant  General  of  Ohio. 

The  train  entered  the  Union  depot  amid  the  ringing  of  muf- 
fled bells.  An  immense  crowd  of  spectators  was  congregated 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  depot,  together  with  the  marshal  and  his 
aides,  the  carriages  for  the  escort,  and  the  military  and  civic 
bodies  that  were  to  take  part  in  the  solemnities.  At  a  given 
signal,  one  of  the  bands  struck  up  a  dirge,  and  the  coffin  was 
taken  from  the  car  and  laid  in  the  hearse  by  a  portion  of  the 
Veteran  Reserve  Corps,  the  other  Veteran  Reserves  marching 
by  its  side,  with  drawn  sabres,  attended  by  the  pall-bearers  and 
military  guard  of  honor. 

The  pall-bearers  were  Dr.  Jolin  Andrews,  Robert  Niel,  F.  C. 
Kelton,  John  Field,  Augustus  Piatt,  Christian  Heyl,  E.  W. 
Gwynne,  W.  B.  Hubbard,  Judge  Taylor,  John  Brooks,  Wm. 
B.  Thrall,  D.  W.  Deshler,  L.  Goodale,  Jos.  R.  Swan,  Wm.  T. 


190 

Martin,  Wm.  M.  Awl,  G.  W.  Manypcnny,  John  M.  Walcott, 
F.  Stewart,  John  Noble,  P.  Jaeger,  Sen.,  and  Amos  S.  Ramsey. 

Slowly  and  soleninly  the  escort,  headed  by  General  Hooker 
and  staff,  and  Governor  Brough  and  staff,  passed  to  the  Capi- 
tol entrance,  and  reverently  the  coffin  was  lowered  from  the 
shoulders  of  the  veterans  to  the  flowery  bed  awaiting  it.  The 
officers  named,  with  their  attendants,  Major  General  Ilunter 
and  staff,  and  the  general  officers  in  charge  of  the  corpse  from 
Washington,  General  Wager  Swayne  and  staff,  the  pall-bear- 
ers, and  members  of  committees,  assumed  their  proper  places 
around  the  catafalque,  with  uncovered  heads,  the  guard  of  honor 
from  the  Veteran  Reserve  Corps  formed  in  line  on  each  side, 
and  as  soon  as  the  corpse  was  in  place,  Rev.  Mr.  Felton  offered 
an  appropriate  prayer. 

The  rotunda  of  the  Capitol,  so  well  calculated  for  display,  so 
grand  in  its  loftiness,  was  transformed  into  a  gorgeous  tomb. 
The  grand  column  of  light  streaming  down  from  the  lofty  dome 
made  distinct  and  impressive  each  feature  of  the  solemn  scene 
below.  There  was  no  unwonted  display  to  mar  the  solemnity, 
but  beautifully  and  simply  grand  as  was  the  character  of  him 
whose  mortal  remains  were  to  repose  therein,  the  rotunda  of 
Ohio's  Capitol  emblemed  the  sorrow  of  Ohio's  people. 

The  coffin  rested  on  a  mound  of  moss,  in  which  were  dotted 
the  choicest  flowers.  At  the  head  of  the  coffin  rested  a  large 
floral  wreath,  while  directly  behind  the  latter  were  flowers  in 
glass  and  china  vessels,  contributed  by  ladies.  At  the  corners 
of  the  platform,  on  the  floor,  were  large  vases,  also  filled  with 
flowers.  The  walls  were  adorned  with  a  naval  picture  repre- 
senting a  scene  in  the  life  of  Commodore  Perry,  and  with 
banners  carried  by  Ohio  troops  in  the  recent  war,  torn  and  rid- 
dled by  bullets  in  many  a  conflict. 

By  actual  count  it  was  found  that  over  eight  thousand  passed 
in  and  out  every  hour  from  half  after  nine  until  four  o'clock,  and 
making  due  allowances,  it  is  thought  that  fifty  thousand  people 
viewed  the  remains  in  that  time. 

For  more  than  six  hours  a  steady  stream  of  humanity  poured 
througli  the  channel,  all  eager  to  gaze  at  the  sainted  martyr  on 
bis  bier. 

Long  before  the  hour  appointed  for  the  delivery  of  the  funeral 


191 

oration  in  the  afternoon,  the  east  terrace  of  the  State  House 
was  crowded  with  men  and  women  who  had  gathered  to  hear 
the  lessons  which  might  be  suggested  from  the  life  and  death  of 
a  martyred  President.  Upon  the  platform,  at  three  o'clock, 
appeared  Major  General  Hunter,  Major  Gen.  Hooker,  Major 
General  Barnard,  Brigadier  General  Townsend,  Brigadier 
General  McCuUum,  Colonel  Swords,  Colonel  Simpson,  Colonel 
Lathrop,  Captain  Taylor,  Hon.  T.  B.  Shannon  of  Cal.,  Hon. 
T.  W.  Terry  of  Michigan,  Hon.  Mr.  Clarke  of  Kansas,  the 
orator,  Hon.  Job  E.  Stevenson  of  Chillicothe,  Reverends  E.  P. 
Goodwin  and  C.  E.  Felton  of  Columbus.  After  appropriate 
music  by  military  bands,  and  the  singing  of  a  hymn  by  a  choir 
under  the  direction  of  J.  A.  Scarritt,  a  prayer,  impressive  in 
thought  and  earnest  in  manner  and  word,  was  offered  by  the 
pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church  of  Columbus,  Mr.  Good- 
win. A  solemn  hymn  was  then  sung  by  the  choir. 
Hon.  J.  E.  Stevenson  delivered  the  following  address  : 

Ohio  mourns!  America  mourns !  The  civilized  world  will  mourn  the  cruel 
death  of  Arahara  Lincoln — the  brave,  the  wise,  the  good — tho  bravest,  wisest, 
best  of  men.  History  alone  can  measure  and  weigh  his  worth.  But  we,  in 
parting  from  his  mortal  remains,  may  indulge  the  fulness  of  our  hearts  in  a  few 
broken  words  of  his  life,  and  his  death,  and  his  fame — his  noble  life  and 
martyr's  death  and  matchless  fame.  A  western  farmer's  son,  self-made,  in 
manhood  he  won  by  sterling  qualities  of  bead  and  heart  the  public  confidence, 
and  was  entrusted  with  the  people's  power.  Growing  with  his  State,  he  became 
leader.  President.  He  disbelieved  the  threats  of  traitors,  and  sought  to  serve 
his  term  in  peace. 

When  clouds  of  civil  war  darkened  the  land,  the  President  prayed  for  peace, 
and  long  opposed  the  war ;  and  only  when  the  war  became  furious  did  he  stem 
the  elements,  and  during  the  four  years  of  war  which  raged  the  President  was 
tried  as  man  was  never  tried  before.  Oh !  with  what  a  load  of  toil  and  care 
has  he  come,  with  a  steady  step,  through  the  valley  and  shadow  of  defeat  over 
the  bright  mountains  of  victory,  up  to  the  sunlight  plain  of  peace ;  tried  by 
dire  disaster  of  Bull  Run,  where  volunteer  patriots  met  traitors ;  at  Fredericks- 
burg, where  courage  contended  with  nature;  at  Chancellorsville,  tliat  desperate 
venture  in  the  swamps  of  the  Chickahominy,  where  a  brave  army  was  buried 
in  vain;  by  the  siege  of  Charleston,  the  mockery  of  Piichmond,  and  the  dangers 
of  Washington ;  through  all  these  trials  the  President  stood  firm,  trusting  in  God, 
and  while  the  people  trusted  in  God  and  him,  there  were  never  braver  men 
than  the  Union  soldiers,  in  Grecian  phalanx,  Roman  legion,  nor  braver  ever 
bent  the  Saxon  bow  or  bore  the  barbarian  battle-axe,  or  set  the  lance  in' rest; 
none  braver  ever  followed  the  Crescent  and  the  Cross,  or  fought  with  Napoleon, 


192 

or  Wellington,  or  WashingtoQ.  Yet  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Union 
army  and  navy  was  worthy  of  the  man  filling  for  four  years  the  foremost  and 
most  perilous  post.  Unfalteringly  tried  by  good  fortune,  he  saw  the  soldiers 
of  the  West  recover  the  great  valley  and  bring  back  to  the  Union  the  father 
of  the  waters  and  all  his  beautiful  children.  He  saw  the  legions  of  Leo  hunted 
from  the  heights  of  Gettysburg.  He  saw  the  flag  of  the  free  rise  on  Lookout 
Mountain  and  speed  from  the  river  to  the  sea,  and  rest  over  Sumter.  He  saw 
the  star-spangled  banner,  lighted  by  the  blaze  of  battle,  bloom  over  Kichmond, 
and  he  saw  Lee  surrender ;  yet  he  remained  wise  and  modest,  giving  all  the 
glory  to  God  and  our  army  and  navy.  Tried  by  civil  affairs  which  would  have 
tried  the  power  and  tested  the  virtue  of  Jefferson,  Hamilton  and  Washington, 
he  administered  that  so  well,  that  after  three  years  no  man  was  found  to  take 
his  place.  He  was  re-elected,  and  the  harvest  of  success  came  in  so  grandly 
that  he  might  have  said  "Now,  Lord,  let  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine 
eyes  have  seen  the  glory."  Yet  he  was  free  from  weakness  and  vanity.  Thus 
did  he  exhibit,  on  occasions,  a  due  proportion  of  harmonious  action,  those  car- 
dinal virtues,  the  trinity  of  true  greatness,  courage,  wisdom,  goodness  to  love, 
the  right  wisdom  to  know  the  right,  and  courage  to  do  the  right.  Tried  by 
those  tests,  and  by  the  touchstone  of  success,  he  was  the  greatest  of  living  men. 
He  stood  on  the  summit,  his  brow  bathed  in  the  beams  of  the  rising  sun  of 
peace,  singing  in  his  heart  the  angelic  song  of  "Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
peace  on  earth,  good-will  to  men."  With  charity  for  all,  he  had  forgiven  the 
people  of  the  South,  and  might  have  forgiven  their  leaders,  covering  with  the 
broad  mantle  of  his  charity  their  multitude  of  sins.  But  he  is  slain  by 
slavery;  that  fiend  incarnate  did  the  deed!  Beaten  in  battle,  the  leaders  sought 
to  save  slavery  by  assassination.     Their  madness  forced  their  destruction. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  personification  of  mercy  ;  Andrew  Johnson  is  the 
personification  of  justice.  They  have  murdered  mercy,  and  justice  rules  alone; 
and  the  people,  with  one  voice,  pray  to  heaven  that  justice  may  be  done.  The 
mere  momentum  of  our  victorious  armies  will  crush  every  rebel  in  arms,  and 
then  may  our  eyes  behold  the  majesty  of  the  law.  They  have  appealed  to  the 
sword.  If  they  were  tried  by  the  law  their  crimes  against  humanity  would 
doom  them  to  death.  The  blood  of  thousands  of  murdered  prisoners  cries  to 
Heaven;  the  shades  of  sixty-two  thousand  starved  soldiers  rise  in  judgment 
against  them;  the  body  of  the  murdered  President  condemns  them.  Some 
deprecate  even  vengeance.  There  is  no  room  for  vengeance.  Ere  long,  before 
justice  can  have  her  perfect  work,  the  material  will  be  exhausted  and  the  record 
closed. 

Some  wonder  why  the  South  killed  her  best  friend.  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
the  true  friend  of  the  people  of  the  South,  for  he  was  their  friend  as  Jesus  is 
the  friend  of  sinners — ready  to  save  when  they  repent.  He  was  not  the  friend 
of  rebellion  or  slavery.  He  was  their  strongest  foe,  and  therefore  they  slew 
him  ;  but  in  his  death  they  die.  The  people  have  judged  them,  and  they  stand 
convicted  with  remorse  and  dismay,  while  the  cause  for  which  the  President 
perished,  sanctified  by  his  blood,  grows  stronger  and  brighter.  These  are  some 
of  the  consequences  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Ours  is  the  grief;  theirs  is 
the  loss,  and  his  is  the  gain.     He  died  for  liberty  and  Union,  and  now  he 


193 

wears  the  martyr's  glorious  crown.  He  is  our  crowned  President.  While 
the  Union  survives,  while  the  love  of  liberty  warms  the  human  heart,  Abraham 
Lincoln  will  hold  high  rank  among  the  immortal  dead.  The  North  needs  no 
aid  from  rebel  hands  to  help  the  Union.  The  Union  needs  no  improvement.  It 
has  not  been  made  by  man.  It  was  created  by  God.  It  is  vital.  If  it  has 
wounds  in  the  members  of  its  body,  they  will  heal  and  leave  no  scar,  without 
the  opiate  of  compromise  with  treason.  *  *  *  *  We  cannot 
afford  to  sacrifice  one  jot  or  tittle  of  principle  for  conciliation.  We  had  better 
bear  all  the  ills  of  war  than  fly  to  the  corruption  of  an  unprincipled  peace. 
But  no  conciliation  is  needed.  Let  the  prodigals  feed  on  the  husks  till  they 
come  in  repentance  and  ask  to  be  received  in  their  father's  house — not  as  the 
equals  to  their  faithful  brethren,  but  on  a  co-equal  with  their  former  servants. 
Then  we  can  consider  their  position  and  discuss  the  question,  not  of  the  recon- 
struction of  the  Union,  but  of  the  formation  of  free  States  from  the  national 
domain.  Until  then  let  the  sword  which  reclaimed  their  territory  rule  it,  tem- 
pered by  national  laws.  Some  say  that  except  by  conciliation  there  can  be  no 
true  peace  by  conquest.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  no  enduring  peace  but  the 
peace  that  is  conquered.  The  peace  of  France  is  a  conquered  peace ;  the  peace 
of  England  is  conquered  and  conquered  again ;  the  peace  of  our  fathers  is  a 
conquered  peace;  the  peace  of  the  world  is  a  conquered  peace,  and  thanks  be 
to  God  our  peace  is  to  be  conquered ;  and,  therefore,  a  lasting  peace.  For  a 
hundred  years  shall  the  people  enjoy  liberty  and  Union  in  peace  and  security. 
The  nation  shall  be  revived  through  all  its  members  by  the  hand  of  free  labor. 
Prosperity  shall  fill  and  overflow  the  land,  roll  along  the  railways,  thrill  the 
electric  wire,  pulsate  on  the  rivers,  blossom  on  the  lakes,  and  whiten  the  sea; 
and  the  imperial  face  of  the  public,  the  best  and  strongest  government  on 
earth,  will  be  a  monument  of  the  glory  of  Abraham  Lincoln ;  while  over  and 
above  all  shall  rise  and  swell  the  great  dome  of  his  fame. 

The  choir  then  sang  Bryant's  funeral  ode  for  the  burial  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  when  the  benediction  was  pronounced  and 
an  air  played  by  the  band. 

The  closing  scene  at  Columbus  was  one  of  impressive  beauty 
and  solemnity.  The  sun,  setting  in  peculiar  glory,  was  shed- 
ding his  golden  light  over  the  city,  and  giving  to  the  closing 
funeral  scenes  a  solemn  interest.  A  cluster  of  ladies  entered 
the  rotunda,  and  in  tearful  silence  sat  near  the  catafalque.  The 
guard  of  honor,  keeping  faithful  vigilance  over  their  sacred 
treasure,  and  waiting  the  moment  of  departure,  were  walking 
in  slow  and  solemn  tread  around  the  platform  on  which  rested 
the  remains  of  the  honored  dead.  Flowers,  and  other  expres- 
sive symbols  of  sorrow,  surrounded  the  coffin,  adorned  with  its 
gorgeous  ornaments.  Through  the  dome  of  the  magnificent 
capitol  the  soft,  lingering  rays  of  the  departing  sun  streamed 

13 


194 

down,  with  a  mild  and  half-dimmed  radiance,  covering  the  scene 
within  the  rotunda  with  an  attractive  and  subduing  aspect.  In 
the  midst  of  this  picture  of  beauty,  and  almost  painful  silence, 
Governor  Brough  and  a  few  others  entered,  and,  with  the  guard 
of  honor,  and  the  group  of  ladies,  followed  the  remains  out  of 
the  rotunda  into  the  spacious  grounds  that  surround  the  capitol. 
As  the  cortege  passed  out  of  the  door,  a  band  struck  up  the 
grand  historic  tune  of  "  Old  Hundred,"  followed  by  a  national 
salute  from  the  military,  and  thus  to  the  sound  of  inspiring 
music  and  minute  guns  was  the  remains  of  the  illustrious  dead 
borne  to  the  funeral  car,  and  left  the  capital  of  Ohio  at  the  set- 
ting of  the  sun. 

As  the  arrangements  made  at  Washington  prevented  the 
funeral  cortege  from  passing  through  Cincinnati,  tlie  great 
commercial  metropolis  of  Ohio  and  the  West,  the  Mayor,  Com- 
mon Council,  and  several  hundred  eminent  citizens  of  that  city 
were  present  at  Columbus,  to  mingle  in  the  ceremonies  and  to 
add  to  the  honors  paid  to  the  illustrious  and  departed  Presi- 
dent by  the  great  State  of  Ohio. 

The  route  from  Columbus  to  Indianapolis,  in  its  entire  length, 
was  passed  over  in  the  darkness  of  the  night.  This,  however, 
did  not  diminish  the  spontaneous  tributes  of  honor.  At  all  the 
stations,  villages,  and  towns  multitudes  assembled  to  manifest 
in  all  appropriate  symbols  their  sorrow,  and  to  add  their  tears 
to  the  universal  grief.  There  was  a  perfect  torchlight  along 
the  whole  route.  Every  farm-house  had  its  bonfire  in  order 
to  see  the  train.  Nearly  every  town  had  arches  built  over  the 
track. 

At  Urbana,  a  large  and  beautiful  town  in  central  Ohio, 
some  three  thousand  people  were  present.  A  large  cross 
was  on  the  platform,  entwined  with  circling  wreaths  of 
evergreens,  which  were  worked  under  direction  of  Mrs. 
Miles  G.  Williams,  President  of  the  Ladies  Soldiers'  Aid 
Society.  From  the  top  of  the  cross,  and  shorter  arms, 
•were  hung  illuminated  colored  transparencies.  On  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  track  was  an  elevated  platform,  on  which 
were  forty  gentlemen  and  ladies,  wlio  sung  with  pathetic 
sweetness  the  hymn  entitled  "  Go  to  thy  rest."  The  singers 
represented  the  Methodist,  Baptist,  Episcopalian,  and  Presby- 


195 

terian  churches.  Large  bonfires  made  night  light  as  d^^y. 
Minute  guns  were  fired.  Ten  young  ladies  entered  the  car  and 
strewed  flowers  on  the  martyr's  bier.  One  of  the  ladies  was 
so  aflFected  that  she  cried  and  wept  in  great  anguish.  The 
scene  was  one  of  great  beauty  and  effect,  and  did  credit  to  the 
good  taste  of  the  people  of  that  town. 

At  Piqua,  ten  thousand  people  assembled  at  the  hour  of 
midnight  to  honor  the  martyred  President.  They  were  seen  in 
all  directions,  by  the  light  of  lamps,  torches,  and  bonfires.  The 
railroad  station  was  adorned  with  Chinese  lanterns  and  flags, 
in  conjunction  with  dark  mourning  drapery.  Thirty-six  ladies 
in  white,  with  black  sashes,  sang  a  plaintive  tune,  which 
brought  tears  from  many  eyes.  The  Troy  band  and  the  Piqua 
band  played  appropriate  music,  after  which  a  delegation  from 
the  Methodist  churches,  under  Rev.  Granville  (Col.)  Moody, 
sung  a  hymn.  Mr.  Moody  repeated  the  first  line,  when  it  was 
then  sung  by  the  entire  choir.  It  was  a  scene  such  as  is  seldom 
witnessed. 

Richmond,  Indiana,  was  reached  by  the  train  on  Sunday 
morning,  at  three  o'clock,  and  ten  thousand  people  were 
assembled.  Wreaths  of  flowers  were  brought  by  ladies, 
bearing  the  motto,  "  The  nation  mourns;"  and  these  floral 
gifts  were  laid  upon  the  coffins  of  the  President  and  little 
"Willie.  The  train  passed  under  an  arched  bridge,  the  abut- 
ments of  which  were  trimmed  with  evergreens,  dotted  with 
white  roses,  and  wreathed  with  mourning  drapery.  On  this 
bridge  was  the  representation  of  a  coffin,  covered  with  the  na- 
tional flag  ;  a  female  figure  was  kneeling,  and  was  in  the  act  of 
weeping  ;  she  represented  tlie  Genius  of  Liberty  ;  a  soldier 
and  a  sailor  at  either  side  of  the  coffin  completed  the  group. 
At  Centreville,  Germantown,  and  Cambridge,  thousands  of 
people  were  gathered.  At  Cambridge  the  train  passed  under 
an  arch  trimmed  with  evergreens,  surmounted  with  a  female 
figure,  to  represent  the  Genius  of  America  weeping.  At  Dub- 
lin the  train  passed  under  an  arch,  thirty  feet  high,  dotted  with 
email  United  States  flags.  On  the  depot  were  set  diff'erent  pic- 
tures, wreathed  with  evergreens,  representing  Washington,  Lin- 
coln, Grant,  Sherman,  Ellsworth,  and  others.  At  Knightstown 
were  erected  funeral  arches  at  each  end  of  the  depot,  and  the 


196 

building  was  festooned  "with  the  badges  of  sorrow.  A  choir 
chaunted  a  solemn  and  beautiful  hymn  as  the  train  moved 
leisurely  between  the  files  of  mourning  citizens. 

At  Charlotteville,  chief  among  the  procession  at  the  depot 
was  quite  a  large  body  of  colored  people.  How  fitting  and 
sublime  seemed  the  gospel  declaration,  as  the  Great  Eman- 
cipator's coffin  passed  tlirough  a  file  of  freemen,  "  Of  one  blood 
made  He  all  nations  of  men.;'  The  brightest  star  in  the  im- 
mortal diadem  that  encircled  the  brows  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  his  fiat  to  his  country:  "  Be  ye  indeed  free." 

FUNERAL   HONORS   AT   INDIANAPOLIS. 

The  State  of  Indiana,  the  early  home  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and 
its  capital  city,  gave  affecting  and  universal  evidence  of  the 
profound  grief  felt  by  the  people.  The  train,  bearing  all  that 
was  mortal  of  the  late  President,  arrived  at  Indianapolis  on 
Sabbath  morning  at  seven  o'clock,  the  30th  of  April.  It  was 
escorted  to  the  city  by  the  following  oflBcers,  citizens  of  the 
State,  who  had  gone  as  a  special  committee  to  Richmond  to  re- 
ceive and  conduct  the  remains  to  Indianapolis  : 

Governor  0.  P.  Morton,  Lieutenant  Governor  Conrad  Baker,  T.  B.  McCarty, 
Auditor  of  State ;  John  I.  Morrison,  Treasurer  of  State ;  D.  R.  Williamson,  At- 
torney General ;  Laz  Noble,  Clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court ;  Thomas  A.  Hen- 
dricks, U.  S.  Senator;  Brigadier  General  Tom  Bennet ;  II.  S.  Lane,  U.  S.  Sena- 
tor; G.  S.  Orth;  Thomas  N.  Stillwell,  M.  C;  David  Kilgore,  D.  S.  Gooding, 
I).  C.  Branham,  J.  Matson,  Hon.  John  H.  Farquhar,  M.  C,  Henry  Secrist,  Gen. 
Colgrove,  J.  F.  Kibby,  T.  J.  Cason,  J.  L.  Miller,  M.  C.  Culver,  Colonel  R.  N. 
Hudson,  Colonel  R.  W.  Thomson,  Colonel  Oyler,  General  Dumont,  M.  C,  John 
U.  Petit,  Joseph  E.  McDonald,  General  John  Love,  Thomas  Whitesides,  Jer. 
Sullivan,  Colonel  James  Burgess,  Colonel  L.  L.  Shuler,  H.  C.  Newcomb,  Joseph 
J.  Bingham,  Alfred  Harrison,  William  Hannaman,  James  N.  Tyner,  Captain 
H.  B.  Hill,  Captain  Stansifer,  J.  Y.  Allison,  Colonel  C.  D.  Murray,  Colonel  Ira 
Grover,  Colonel  D.  G.  Rose,  Colonel  W.  H.  J.  Robinson,  David  McDonald,  J.  D. 
Howland,  Judge  C.  A.  Ray,  Judge  Blair,  John  Hannah,  ex-Governor  Dunning, 
Dr.  Ilendrix,  Judge  Gregory,  J.  H.  McVey,  E.  J.  Banta,  D.  E.  Snyder,  Charles 
F.  Iloagato,  R.  N.  Brown,  R.  B.  Catherwood,  E.  W.  Halford,  Esq.,  Wm.  Wal- 
lace, E.  H.  Barry, Hon.  A. II. Connor,.!.  T.Wright,W.A.Bradshaw,  J.  J.  Wright, 
Esq.,  E.  W.  Kimball,  Esq.,  General  Elliott,  Major  J.  II.  Lozier,  Andrew  Wal- 
lace, J.  C.  New,  Esq.,  W.  H.  English,  Captain  James  Wilson,  Mayor  Caven  and 
the  Common  Council,  T.  C.  Philips, 'J.  P.  Luse,  J.  II.  Jordan,  M.  C.  Garber,  W 
S.  Lingle,  R.  J.  Ryan,  C.  S.  Butterfield,  J.  K.  English,  W.  R.  Manlove,  Dr. 
George  W.  Clippinger,  Charles  N.  Todd,  Rev.  F.  C,  Holliday,  Rev.  J.  V.  R. 


I 


197 

Miller,  Rev.  B.  F.  Foster,  Rev.  J.  P.  T.  Ingiaham,  Rev.  Dr.  Bowman,  Rev.  C. 
F.  Marshall,  Rev.  0.  A.  Burgess,  Father  Bessonies,  Mr.  Silverthorn  of  the  Ev- 
ansville  Journal,  and  Mr.  Westfall  of  the  Ttrr&  Haute  Express. 

At  the  Union  depot  immense  multitudes  were  assembled, 
and  the  military  was  drawn  up,  in  open  order,  to  receive  the 
remains  and  escort  them  in  solemn  procession  to  the  State 
House.  Amid  the  sound  of  tollino;  bells,  and  in  falling  rain, 
the  procession  moved  in  slow  and  solemn  march  to  the  capitol, 
while  on  the  entire  line  of  march  the  citizens  thronged  the  side- 
walks, balconies,  and  house-tops,  in  deep  sympathy  with  the 
solemn  scene.  The  body,  carried  by  the  sergeants,  was  borne 
into  the  State  House,  and  lay  in  state  during  the  entire  Sabbath. 
The  enclosure  of  the  State  House  Square  was  hung  with 
wreaths  of  arborvitce.  At  each  corner  on  Washington  street 
small  arches,  trimmed  with  evergreen,  had  been  erected.  The 
main  entrance  on  Wasliington  street  was  a  structure  of  con- 
siderable size,  combining  quite  a  variety  of  styles  of  architec- 
ture ;  it  was  about  twenty-five  feet  high,  forty  feet  in  length, 
and  twenty-four  feet  wide.  Underneath  was  a  carriage-way, 
twelve  feet  wide,  with  a  six-feet  passage  way  on  either  side. 
The  main  pillars  were  fifteen  feet  high.  Portraits  of  Grant, 
Sherman,  Farragut,  and  Morton  were  suspended  from  the  pillars, 
while  on  the  pedestals  at  the  top  rested  handsome  busts  of  Wash- 
ington, Webster,  Lincoln,  and  Clay.  The  entire  structure  was 
beautifully  shrouded  in  black,  and  was  relieved  by  evergreen 
garlands,  with  a  fine  display  of  flags.  At  the  north  side  a 
simple  draping  of  black  and  white  had  been  erected.  The 
pillars  of  the  south  front  of  the  capitol  were  spirally  covered 
with  alternate  white  and  black  cloth,  the  latter  edged  witli 
evergreens,  while  the  coat  of  arms  of  the  State  was  placed  in 
the  pediment.  During  the  performance  of  an  impressive 
funeral  dirge,  the  tolling  of  bells,  and  the  sounding  of  cannon, 
the  coffin  was  carried  to  the  interior  of  the  State  House  in  the 
presence  of  the  military  and  civic  escort  which  had  accom- 
panied the  remains  from  Washington.  Along  the  walls 
were  suspended  pictures  of  Washington,  Lincoln,  Johnson, 
Seward,  Sheridan,  Hovey,  Morton,  Douglas,  Sherman,  Grant, 
Colonel  Dick  O'Neall,  and  Edward  Everett.  Busts  of  Wash- 
ington, Lincoln,  Jackson,  Webster,  Clay,  and  Douglas  were 


198 

placed  at  intervals,  their  brows  bound  witli  the  ever-living 
laurel  flowers,  and  evergreens  everywhere  literally  entered 
into  the  artistic  arrangements.  Heavy  black  cloth  was  hung 
in  the  rotunda,  looped  at  the  pillars  with  large  white  tassels, 
while  the  surmounting  of  the  interior  dome,  whicli  formed 
loosely  the  hung  canopy,  was  in  black,  with  white  cords  and 
tassels,  and  ornamented  with  golden  stars.  Immediately  beneath 
hung  the  chandelier,  with  numerous  burners,  and  from  which  a 
mellow  light  was  shed  upon  the  sombre  scene.  The  platform 
was  in  the  centre  of  the  rotunda,  under  the  chandelier.  It 
was  covered  with  fine  black  velvet,  with  silver  fringe.  On  this 
the  cofiEin  was  placed,  surrounded  by  flowers,  while  white 
wreaths  and  floral  crosses  laid  upon  the  lid. 

It  was  estimated  that  persons  were  passed  through  at  the 
rate  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  minute,  and  that  fully  one 
hundred  thousand  persons  viewed  the  remains  in  the  course  of 
the  day. 

All  the  public  and  private  buildings  of  the  city  were 
draped  in  mourning,  and  on  many  of  them  beautiful,  artistic 
devices  were  seen,  and  striking  and  suggestive  mottoes  were 
read.  On  one  was  this  inscription,  so  historic  and  true  of  the 
departed  President :  "  He  sleeps  in  the  blessing  of  the  poor, 
ivhose fetters  God  commanded  him  to  breah.'-  On  another  was 
elegantly  represented  Grief,  Hope,  and  Immortality,  in  festoons 
of  black  and  white,  with  a  beautiful  embroidery  of  evergreen. 
On  the  hall  of  a  benevolent  organization  was  the  suggestive 
and  beautiful  sentiment,  "  To  live  in  hearts  we  leave  behind  is 
not  to  die." 

No  formal  religious  services  were  performed  at  the  State 
House,  but  the  clergy  of  the  city  preached  discourses  appro- 
priate to  the  solemn  scenes  of  the  day,  and  commemorative  of 
the  virtues  and  services  of  the  late  President.  A  pleasing  in- 
cident of  the  Sabbath  was  the  visit  of  five  thousand  Sunday 
Scliool  scholars  to  the  State  House,  marshalled  under  the 
venerable  Colonel  James  Blake,  who,  for  forty  years,  had 
been  a  laborer  in  Sunday  schools,  to  look  for  the  first 
and  last  time  on  him  whom  they  had  learned  to  honor  and 
love,  and  who,  in  public  addresses,  had  advocated  the  noble 
cause  of  Sunday  schools.      Indiana  never  saw  such  a  sight. 


199 

The  world's  history  is  emblazoned  by  the  examples  of  a  few 
martyrs  to  the  cause  of  liberty  and  religion,  and  sacred  in  the 
heart  of  Indiana  is  now  added  to  the  shining  necrology 
the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  murdered  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America. 

Governor  Bramlette  and  other  distinguished  men  from  Ken- 
tucky came  to  Indianapolis  to  represent  their  State,  and  to  tes- 
tify their  sorrow  for  the  death  of  the  President. 

The  City  Councils  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and  Covington,  Ky., 
also  participated,  as  representative  mourners  of  their  States, 
in  the  ceremonies  at  Indianapolis,  having  met  the  train  at 
Richmond,  Indiana,  and  accompanied  the  remains  to  the  cap- 
ital of  the  State. 

The  ceremonies  on  the  part  of  the  State  closed  at  ten  o'clock 
with  a  procession  of  the  marshals  around  the  coffin,  after  which 
the  guard  of  honor  and  the  guard  of  sergeants  filed  in  and 
took  charge  of  the  remains.  The  undertaker  replaced  the  lid, 
and  the  last  glance  of  Abraham  Lincoln  had  been  taken  in 
Indiana  forever.  The  flowers  which  garlanded  the  coffin  were 
gathered  up  and  given  to  the  charge  of  the  State  Librarian  for 
preservation. 

At  a  few  minutes  past  ten  the  order  was  given,  and  while 
the  band  played  the  solemn  air,  "  Old  Hundred,"  the  coffin  was 
lifted  from  the  dais  to  the  shoulders  of  the  sergeants,  and  by 
them  carried  to  the  funeral  car,  whence,  through  a  line  of 
armed  troops  and  torch  bearers,  extending  from  the  south  en- 
trance of  the  capitol  to  the  west  end  of  the  Union  depot,  the 
procession,  headed  by  the  carriages  of  Generals  Hooker  and 
Hovey,  and  composed  of  the  civic  and  military  escort,  attended 
by  Senator  Lane  and  Representatives  Orth,  Stillwell,  and  Far- 
quhar,  moved,  amid  the  tolling  of  bells  and  thousands  of  un- 
covered heads,  to  place  the  coffin  of  Abraham  Lincoln  upon  the 
train  prepared  by  the  Lafayette  Railroad  Company,  to  be 
transported  to  Chicago. 

Every  Indianian  felt  that  the  honor  of  the  State  had  been 
brightened  by  their  reception  of  the  remains  of  President  Lin- 
coln, and  that  the  State  where  he  passed  some  years  of  his 
youth  had  rendered  her  full  quota  of  honor  to  him  as  the 
saviour  of  his  country. 


/ 


200 

• 
On  Sabbath  evening,  at  10  o'clock,  the  funeral  cortege  left 

Indianapolis  for  Chicago.  The  demonstrations  of  sorrow 
along  the  route  from  Indianapolis  were  most  solemn  and  im- 
pressive. At  the  villages  of  Whitestown,  Lebanon,  Thorntown, 
Colfax.  Clarksville,  and  others,  people  in  great  numbers  were 
assembled,  and  expressed  their  sorrow  in  various  and  signifi- 
cant symbols. 

At  Lafayette,  though  the  train  passed  it  before  day-break, 
thousands  were  assembled  to  honor  the  lamented  dead.  Houses 
were  illuminated  ;  badges  of  mourning  and  draped  flags  were 
abundant ;  the  bells  were  tolled,  bonfires  lit,  and  the  funeral 
strains,  sweet  and  solemn,  came  from  the  choir  of  many  voices. 

Michigan  City  presented  striking  and  beautiful  emblems  of 
grief.  A  temporary  structure,  under  which  the  train  stopped, 
was  erected  with  a  succession  of  arches  in  the  Gothic  style, 
and  from  the  crowning  central  point  floated  a  draped  na- 
tional flag  at  half-mast.  The  arches  were  trimmed  with  white 
and  black,  and  ornamented  with  evergreens  and  choice  flowers. 
Numerous  miniature  flags  fringed  the  curved  edges,  and  por- 
traits of  the  lamented  dead  were  encircled  with  crape.  At  the 
abutments  and  at  the  ends  of  the  main  arch  were  the  mottoes: 
"  The  purposes  of  the  Almighty  are  perfect,  and  must  pre- 
vail;" "Abraham  Lincoln,  the  noblest  martyr  to  freedom; 
sacred  thy  dust;  hallowed  thy  resting  place."  On  each  side 
of  the  arch  were  the  words,  "  Abraham  Lincoln,"  formed  with 
sprigs  of  the  arbor  vitas,  with  the  mottoes  :  "  Our  guiding  star 
has  fallen  ;"  "  The  nation  mourns  ;"  and  "  Though  dead  he  yet 
speaketh."  Near  by  this  combination  of  arches  were  sixteen 
young  ladies  dressed  in  white  waists  and  black  skirts,  with 
black  sashes.  They  sung  "  Old  Hundred,"  concluding  with 
the  doxology.  Many  persons  were  afi'ected  to  tears,  the  mili- 
tary and  civil.  Thirty-six  young  ladies  were  on  a  tastefully- 
decorated  platform  in  white  dresses,  with  black  scarfs.  They 
held  in  their  hands  little  flags.  In  their  midst,  and  almost 
hidden  in  the  folds  of  the  national  flag,  was  a  lady  represent- 
ing the  Genius  of  America.  It  was  a  lovely  group,  upon  which 
all  eyes  gazed  admiringly.  Miss  Colfax,  a  niece  of  the  Speaker, 
and  fifteen  other  ladies,  entered  the  funeral  car,  and  laid  flowers 
upon  the  coflin  of  the  dead.     Meantime  guns  were  fired,  and  the 


null  1II'"T( 


/!.  I- 


201 

subduing  strains  of  music  gave  a  solemn  sadness  and  beauty  to 
the  scene. 

FUNERAL  HONORS  AT  CHICAGO. 

On  Monday,  meridian,  the  1st  of  May,  1865,  the  funeral 
train,  numbering  nine  cars,  covered  with  mourning  drapery,  ar- 
rived at  Chicago,  the  great  commercial  city  of  the  Northwest, 
bearing  back  to  Illinois  the  remains  of  her  honored  and  illus- 
trious citizen,  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  imposing  scenes  of  the 
route  seemed  to  culminate  in  Chicago,  and  to  be,  if  possible, 
more  striking,  more  beautiful,  and  more  impressive  than  had 
yet  been  witnessed. 

Illinois  was  the  early  home  of  the  honored  dead,  the  field 
of  his  forensic  life  and  labors,  and  the  State  in  which  he  first 
displayed  those  just  and  comprehensive  views  of  statesmanship 
which  resulted  in  his  election  to  the  presidency,  and  secured 
for  him  a  rank  among  the  most  illustrious  men  of  the  world. 
Chicago,  too,  was  tlie  city  where  he  received.  May  16,  1860, 
his  first  nomination  as  a  candidate  for  the  highest  office  in  the 
republic,  to  which  he  was  elected  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the 
free  States  of  the  Union.  His  nomination  by  the  convention 
was  hailed  with  unbounded  enthusiasm  by  the  people  of  Illinois 
and  the  citizens  of  Chicago.  In  his  letter  of  acceptance  he 
said  :  "Imploring  the  assistance  of  Divine  Providence,  and  with 
due  regard  to  the  views  and  feelings  of  all  who  were  repre- 
sented in  the  convention  ;  to  the  rights  of  all  the  States  and 
Territories  and  the  people  of  the  nation  ;  to  the  inviolability 
of  the  Constitution,  and  to  the  perpetual  union,  harmony,  and 
prosperity  of  all,  I  am  most  happy  to  co-operate  for  the  prac- 
tical success  of  the  principles  declared  by  the  convention." 
Thus  early,  formally,  and  solemnly  devoted  to  freedom,  to  the 
Constitution,  and  to  trust  in  God,  Abraham  Lincoln  nobly  ex- 
emplified these  sentiments  as  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  for  which  he  fell  a  martyr.  The  city  wliich  greeted  his 
nomination  and  triumphant  election  with  such  delight  was  the 
first  to  give  him  a  mournful  reception  on  his  return  to  Illinois 
as  a  dead  President  and  yet  a  conquering  hero. 

A  committee  of  one  hundred  citizens  received  his  remains  at 


202 

Micliigan  city,  and  bore  them  from  Indiana,  the  home  of  his 
early  and  friendless  boyhood,  into  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  its 
commercial  metropolis,  where  they  received  the  highest  possi- 
ble mark  of  affection  and  honor.  An  immense  asssemblao-e 
waited  at  Park  Place,  the  point  at  which  the  funeral  train 
paused,  and  where  the  remains  were  borne  out  of  tlie  car  into 
the  Park.  A  reception  arch  was  stretched  across  the  Park, 
and  its  columns,  side  arches,  and  gothic  windows  were  draped 
in  elaborate  mourning,  and  over  each  was  a  motto,  expressive 
of  some  feature  in  the  character  and  life  of  the  late  President, 
and  the  affection  and  veneration  of  the  citizens  for  his  memory 
and  virtues. 

The  coffin,  carried  by  eight  sergeants,  was  laid  upon  the  dais 
underneath  the  arch,  and  while  the  pall-bearers  and  guard  of 
honor  from  "Washington  formed  around  the  bier,  a  funeral 
inarch,  "  The  Lincoln  Requiem,"  composed  for  the  occasion, 
•was  performed  with  solemn  effect  by  a  musical  band. 

As  the  solemn  strains  of  the  funeral  march  were  pealing  in 
the  air,  a  most  beautiful  and  touching  rite  was  performed.  This 
was  the  strewing  of  immortelles  and  garlands  upon  the  bier  by 
thirty-six  young  ladies  of  the  High  School.  Before  the  arrival 
of  the  funeral  escort  this  fair  company  of  maidens  liad  been  the  ob- 
ject of  universal  admiration  and  remark.  Attired  in  snow  white 
robes,  with  a  simple  sash  of  tliin  black  crape  tied  with  a  rosette 
at  the  side ;  bare-headed  and  with  a  black  velvet  wreath  over 
their  brows,  in  front  of  which  sparkled  a  single  star ;  some 
with  fair,  sunny  ringlets  hanging  loosely  around  their  shoulders ; 
others  with  their  hair  arranged  in  neat  plaits  at  the  back — they 
looked  the  very  emblems  of  purity. 

The  grand  procession,  numbering  fifty  thousand  people,  then 
formed  and  marched  through  the  avenues  of  the  city  to  the 
Court  House,  in  which  the  remains  of  the  lamented  President 
were  placed  in  state.  The  Court  House  outside  was  draped  in 
the  most  elaborate  manner,  the  windows  being  decorated  with 
mourning  flags,  and  the  rotunda  covered  with  symbols  of  sor- 
row. As  the  coffin  was  being  placed  in  position,  a  choir  of  a 
hundred  voices,  overhead  and  invisible,  sang  a  solemn  dirge, 
which  was  inexpressibly  sad  and  mournful. 

The  spacious  rotunda,  where  the  remains  were  deposited,  was 


203 

decorated  with  mourning.  Rays  of  black  and  white  cloth 
covered  all  the  roof,  being  gathered  into  a  centre  around  the 
chandeliers.  The  walls  were  also  covered  with  black  and  white 
cloth,  and  significant  inscriptions  placed  over  both  entrances, 
and  upon  the  walls.  Over  the  north  door,  on  the  outside,  were 
the  words, 

The  beauty  of  Israel  is  slain  upon  thy  high  places  : 

And  on  the  inside,  over  the  same  door, 

The  altar  of  Freedom  has  borne  no  nobler  sacrifice. 

Over  the  south  door,  on  the  outside,  was  the  inscription, 

Illinois  clasps  to  her  bosom  her  slain,  but  glorified  son : 

And  inside,  over  the  same  entrance, 

He  was  sustained  by  our  prayers,  and  returns  embalmed  by  our  tears. 

During  the  first  and  second  days  of  May,  the  time  that  the 
remains  reposed  in  Chicago,  a  half  million  of  people  were  spec- 
tators of  the  solemn  ceremonies,  and  laid  their  tributes  of 
affection  and  honor  upon  the  dead  body  of  their  former  fellow- 
citizen  and  late  illustrious  President.  The  civic,  military, 
mercantile,  professional,  educational,  mechanical,  benevolent, 
and  religious,  all  orders  and  organizations,  with  banners 
draped  in  mourning  and  the  emblems  of  sorrow,  united  with  the 
citizens  and  large  delegations  from  Wisconsin  and  Iowa  in 
honoring  the  remains  and  the  memory  of  the  late  President. 
The  procession  was  under  the  marshalship  of  Colonel  R.  M. 
Hough  and  his  assistants,  and  the  pall-bearers  consisted  of  the 
following  gentlemen  : 

Hon.  Lyman  Trumbull,  Hon.  John  Wentworth,  Hon.  F.  C.  Sherman,  Hon. 
E.  C.  Larned,  Hon.  F.  A.  Hoffman,  Hon.  J.  R.  Jones,  Hon.  Thos.  Drummond, 
Hon.  Wm.  Bross,  Hon.  J.  B.  Bice,  Hon.  S.  W.  Fuller,  Hon.  T.  B.  Bryan,  Hon. 
J.  Y.  Scammon. 

During  the  night  solemn  dirges  were  sung  ;  the  Germans, 
some  three  hundred  in  number,  chanted  at  midnight  a  beautiful 
and  impressive  requiem  with  thrilling  effect.  The  remains  were 
removed  on  the  evening  of  the  2d  of  May,  and  borne  through 


204 

a  liue  of  a  thousand  men  and  boys,  with  blazing  torclies  in 
their  liands,  to  the  funeral  car.  As  the  remains  were  re- 
placed, and  the  train  moved  slowly  away,  the  German  band,  in 
strains  of  sweet  and  subduing  melody,  made  the  scene  vocal 
with  solemn  song,  and  thus  with  the  benedictions  and  love  of  the 
people  of  Chicago,  and  the  air  filled  with  the  harmony  of 
music,  the  remains  of  the  honored  dead  were  borne  away  to- 
wards their  resting  place  in  the  capital  of  the  State  of  Illinois. 

FUNERAL  ORATION  BY  SPEAKER  COLFAX. 

On  Sabbath  afternoon,  April  30th,  the  day  previous  to  the 
arrival  of  the  funeral  cortege  at  Cliicago,  the  Hon.  Schuyler 
Colfax,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  the  Thirty- 
Ninth  Congress,  and  long  the  intimate,  honored,  and  political 
friend  of  the  late  President,  delivered,  in  Byrant  Hall,  a  funeral 
oration  on  the  life  and  character  of  the  illustrious  deceased. 

The  chair  was  occupied  by  John  V.  Farwell,  Esq.,  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Northwestern  Branch  of  the  Christian  Commission. 
The  services  were  opened  with  prayer  by  Prof.  F.  W.  Fisk, 
D.  D.,  of  the  Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  after  which  Mr. 
Farwell  introduced  the  eloquent  speaker  in  {i  few  befitting  and 
appropriate  remarks. 

The  copy  of  the  oration,  inserted  in  this  memorial  record, 
was  written  out,  at  the  special  request  of  Rev.  Thomas  Eddy, 
D.  D.,  Editor  of  the  Northwestern  Christian  Advocate,  by  the 
orator,  and  is  as  follows  : 

Over  two  centuries  and  a  half  have  passed  away  since  the  ruler  of  any  great 
nation  of  the  world  has  fallen  by  the  murderous  attack  of  an  assassin  ;  and  for 
the  first  time  in  our  history  there  is  blood  on  the  presidential  chair  of  the  re- 
public Death  is  almost  always  saddening.  The  passing  away  of  some  dear 
friend  from  our  earthly  sight  forever  fills  the  heart  with  sorrow.  When  it 
strikes  down  one  who  fills  honorably  a  position  of  influence  and  power,  as  in 
the  case  of  our  two  Presidents  who  died  of  disease  in  the  White  House,  the  sin- 
cerest  grief  is  felt  throughout  the  laud.  But  when  this  affliction  is  aggravated 
by  death  coming  through  the  hand  of  a  murderer,  it  is  not  strange  that  the 
wave  of  woe  sweeps  gloomily  over  a  nation,  which  sits  down  to  mourn  in 
sackcloth,  its  pulses  of  business  stilled,  feeling  in  every  individual  heart  as  if 
there  was  one  dead  at  our  own  hearthstones.  It  seems,  too,  as  if  this  wicked 
deed  was  intensified,  in  all  its  horror,  by  every  attendant  circumstance.  The 
fatal  shot  was  fired  on  the  very  day  when  the  nation's  flag  was  again 
unfurled  in  triumph  over  that  fort  in  Charleston  harbor,  which,  in  four  years' 


205 

time,  had  been  the  cradle  and  the  grave  of  the  rebellion.  It  was  at  an  hour 
when  the  death  of  the  President  could  not  be  of  the  slightest  avail  to  the  trea- 
sonable conspiracy  against  the  republic,  which  its  military  leaders  acknowl- 
edged at  last  was  powerless  and  overthrown.  And  it  was  aimed,  alas  !  with 
too  sure  a  hand,  at  the  life  of  that  one  man  in  the  Government  whose  heart 
was  tenderest  towards  the  would-be  assassins  of  the  nation's  life. 

You  may  search  history,  ancient  and  modern,  and  when  the  task  is  ended  all 
will  concede  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  most  merciful  ruler  who  ever  put 
down  a  powerful  rebellion.  He  had  so  won  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  so  en- 
twined himself  in  their  regard  and  affection,  that  he  was  the  only  man  living 
who  could  have  stood  in  the  breach  between  the  leaders  of  this  iniquity  and  the 
wrath  of  the  country  they  had  plunged  into  bloody  war.  Feeling,  as  so  many 
did,  that  his  kindly  heart  almost  forgot  justice  in  its  throbbings  for  mercy,  yet, 
knowing  his  unfaltering  devotion  to  his  country,  his  inflexible  adherence  to 
principle,  his  unyielding  determination  for  the  restoration  of  our  national  unity, 
there  was  a  trust  in  him,  almost  filial  in  its  loving  confidence,  that  whatever 
he  should  finally  resolve  on  would  prove  in  the  end  to  be  for  the  best.  Had 
he  been  an  unforgiving  ruler  ;  had  his  daily  practice  been  to  sit  in  his  high 
place  and  there  administer  with  unrelenting  severity  the  penalties  of  offended 
law  ;  had  he  proclaimed  his  resolution  to  consign  all  the  plotters  against  his 
country  to  the  gallows  they  had  earned,  we  might  have  understood  why  tha 
rebel  assassins  conspired  against  his  life.  But  no  assassination  in  history — • 
not  even  that  of  Henry  IV  of  France,  for  which  Ravaillac  was  torn  in  pieces 
bj'  horses,  nor  William  of  Orange — approximates  in  utterly  unpalliated  infamy 
to  this. 

In  the  midst  of  the  national  rejoicings  over  the  assured  triumph  of  the  na- 
tional cause,  with  illuminations  and  bonfires  blazing  in  every  town,  and  the 
merry  peal  of  the  festive  bell  in  every  village,  our  cities  blossoming  with  flags, 
our  hearts  beating  high  with  joy,  the  two  great  armies  of  Grant  and  Lee  fra- 
ternizing together  after  their  long  warfare,  and  exulting  together  over 
the  return  of  peace,  we  were  brought  in  a  single  moment  from  the  utmost 
heights  of  felicity  to  the  deepest  valleys  of  lamentation.  No  wonder  that 
rebel  generals  acknowledged  that  it  sent  down  their  cause  through  all  the 
coming  centuries  to  shameless  dishonor.  For,  disguise  it  as  gome  maj''  seek  to 
do,  behind  the  form  of  the  assassin,  as  his  finger  pulled  the  fatal  trigger, 
looms  up  the  dark  and  fiendish  spirit  of  the  rebellion,  which,  baffled  in  its 
work  of  assassinating  the  nation's  life,  avenged  itself  on  the  life  of  him  who 
represented  the  nation's  contest  and  the  nation's  victory.  As  surely  as  the 
infamous  offer  of  twenty-five  thousand  crowns  by  Philip  of  Spain  to  whomso- 
ever would  rid  the  world  of  the  pious  William  of  Orange,  the  purest  and  best- 
loved  ruler  of  his  times,  who,  by  a  striking  coincidence,  was  called  Father 
William,  as  we  called  our  beloved  President  Father  Abraham — as  surely  as 
this  public  offer,  with  its  false  denunciations  of  William's  offences,  inspirited 
the  murderous  Balthazer  to  shoot  him  through  the  body — so  surely  are  the 
chiefs  of  this  gigantic  rebellion  of  our  times  responsible  for  the  fatal  bullet 
that  carried  death  to  our  Chief  Magistrate,  and  filled  the  land  with  unavailing 
Borrow. 


206 

Unrebuked  by  them,  history  repeated  itself  in  the  following  infamous  proffer, 
published  in  the  Selma  (Alabama)  Dispatch  of  last  December,  and  copied  ap- 
provingly into  other  rebel  organs  : 

"  Onk  Million  Dollars  Wanted,  to  have  Peace  bt  the  First  of  MAitcn. 
— If  the  citizens  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  will  furnish  me  with  the  cash,  or 
good  securities  for  the  sum  of  one  million  dollars,  I  will  cause  the  lives  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  W.  H.  Seward,  and  Andrew  Johnson  to  be  taken  by  the  first  of 
March  next.  This  will  give  us  peace,  and  satisfy  the  world  that  cruel  tyrants 
cannot  live  in  a  '  land  of  liberty.'  If  this  is  not  accomplished,  nothing  will  be 
claimed  beyond  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  advance,  which  is  supposed 
to  be  necessary  to  reach  and  slaughter  the  three  villains. 

"  I  will  give,  myself,  one  thousand  dollars  toward  this  patriotic  purpose. 

"Every  one  wishing  to  contribute  will  address  Box  X,  Cahawba,  Ala. 

"  December  1,  1864." 

You  will  not  fail  to  remember  that  these  very  three  thus  named  were  to  have 
been  murdered  on  that  fatal  night ;  and  that  when  Booth  was  captured  he  was 
fleeing  in  that  very  direction. 

And,  to  fix  upon  them  the  brand  inefiaceably  and  for  ever,  as  the  miscreant 
leaped  upon  the  stage,  his  shout  of  Virginia's  motto,  ''Sic  semper  tyrannis," 
with  his  own  addition,  "  The  South  is  avenged,"  proclaims  to  the  civilized  world, 
which  will  be  filled  with  horror  at  the  deed,  as  well  as  to  posterity,  which  will 
ever  loathe  the  crime  and  the  cause  for  whose  interests  it  was  committed,  the 
authorship  of  this  unparalleled  atrocity.  It  seems,  however,  but  a  natural 
sequel  to  the  infamous  plot  to  murder  him  as  he  passed  through  Baltimore 
when  first  elected  ;  to  the  brutalities  on  our  dead  soldiers  at  Bull  Run,  burying 
them  face  downwards,  and  carving  up  their  bones  into  trinkets;  to  the  piracies 
on  the  high  seas,  and  attempts  to  burn  women  and  children  to  death  in  crowded 
hotels  and  theatres ;  to  Fort  Pillow  massacres,  and  to  the  systematic  and  inex- 
piable starvation  of  thousands  of  Union  prisoners  in  their  horrid  pens. 

I  can  scarcely  trust  myself  to  attempt  the  portraiture  of  our  martyred  chief, 
whose  death  is  mourned  as  never  man's  was  mourned  before ;  and  who,  in  all 
the  ages  that  may  be  left  to  America,  while  time  shall  last,  will  be  enshrined 
in  solemn  memory  with  the  Father  of  the  Piepublic  which  he  saved.  How 
much  I  lov.ed  him  personally,  I  cannot  express  to  you.  Honored  always  by 
his  confidence  ;  treated  ever  by  him  with  affectionate  regard;  sitting  often  with 
him  familiarly  at  his  table ;  his  last  visitor  on  that  terrible  night ;  receiving 
his  last  message,  full  of  interest  to  the  toiling  miners  of  the  distant  West; 
walking  by  his  side  from  his  parlor  to  the  door,  as  he  took  his  last  steps  in  that 
Executive  Mansion  he  had  honored ;  receiving  the  last  grasp  of  that  generous 
and  loving  hand,  and  his  last,  last,  good-by  ;  declining  his  last  kind  invitation 
to  join  him  in  those  hours  of  relaxation  which  incessant  care  and  anxiety 
seemed  to  render  so  desirable,  my  mind  has  since  been  tortured  with  regrets 
that  I  had  not  accompanied  him.  If  the  knife  which  the  assassin  had  intended 
for  Grant  had  not  been  wasted,  as  it  possibly  would  not  have  been,  on  one  of 
BO  much  less  importance  in  our  national  affairs,  perchance  a  sudden  backward 
look  at  that  eventful  instant  might  have   saved  that  life,  so  incalculably 


207 

precious  to  v/ife  and  cliildren  and  country;  or,  failing  in  that,  might  have 
hindered  or  prevented  the  escape  of  his  murderer.  The  willingness  of  any  man 
to  endanger  his  life  for  another's  is  so  much  doubted  that  I  scarcely  dare  to  say 
how  willingly  I  would  have  risked  my  own  to  preserve  his,  of  such  pricelesi? 
value  to  us  all.  But  if  you  can  realize  that  it  is  sweet  to  die  for  one's  country, 
as  so  many  scores  of  thousands,  from  every  State  and  county  and  hamlet,  have 
proved  in  the  years  that  are  past,  you  can  imagine  the  consolation  there  would 
he  to  any  one,  even  in  his  expiring  hours,  to  feel  that  he  had  saved  the  land 
from  a  funereal  gloom  which,  but  a  few  days  ago,  settled  down  upon  it  from 
ocean  to  ocean  and  from  capitol  to  cabin,  at  the  loss  of  one  for  whom  even  a 
hecatomb  of  victims  could  not  atone. 

Of  this  noble  hearted  man,  so  full  of  genial  impulses,  so  self  forgetful,  so 
utterly  unselfish,  so  pure  and  gentle  and  good,  who  lived  for  us  and  at  last  died 
for  us,  I  feel  how  inadequate  I  am  to  portray  his  manifold  excellences — his 
intellectual  worth — his  generous  character — his  fervid  patriotism.  Pope  cele- 
brated the  memory  of  Robert  Harley,  the  Lord  of  Oxford,  a  privy  counselor  of 
Queen  Anne,  who  himself  narrowly  escaped  assassination,  in  lines  that  seem 
prophetic  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  virtues  : 

A  soul  supreme  in  each  hard  instance  tried ; 
Above  all  pain,  all  anger,  and  all  pride, 
The  rage  of  power,  the  blast  of  public  breath, 
The  lust  of  lucre,  and  the  dread  of  death. 

No  one  could  ever  convince  the  President  that  he  was  in  danger  of  violent 
death.  Judging  others  by  himself,  he  could  not  realize  that  any  one  could  seek 
his  blood.  Or  he  may  have  believed,  as  Napoleon  wrote  to  Jerome,  that  no 
public  man  could  effectually  shield  himself  from  the  danger  of  assassination. 
Easier  of  access  to  the  public  at  large  than  had  been  any  of  his  predecessors ; 
admitting  his  bitterest  enemies  to  his  reception-room  alone ;  restive  under  the 
cavalry  escort  which  Secretary  Stanton  insisted  should  accompany  him  last 
summer  in  his  daily  journeys  between  the  "White  House  and  his  summer  resi- 
dence, at  the  Soldiers'  Home,  several  miles  from  Washington,  at  a  time,  too,  as 
since  ascertained  in  the  details  of  this  long-organized  plot  discovered  since  his 
death,  when  it  was  intended  to  gag  and  handcuff  him  and  to  carry  him  to  the 
rebel  capital  as  a  hostage  for  their  recognition  ;  sometimes  escaping  from  their 
escort  by  anticipating  their  unusual  hour  of  attendance  ;  walking  about  the 
grounds  unattended ;  he  could  not  be  persuaded  that  he  run  any  risk  whatever. 
Being  at  City  Point  after  the  evacuation  of  Richmond,  he  determined  to  go 
thither,  not  from  idle  curiosity,  but  to  see  if  he  could  not  do  something  to  stop 
the  effusion  of  blood  and  hasten  the  peace  for  which  he  longed.  The  ever- 
watchful  Secretary  of  War,  hearing  of  it,  implored  him  by  telegraph  not  to  go, 
and  warned  him  that  some  lurking  assassin  might  take  his  life.  But  armed 
with  his  good  intentions — alas !  how  feeble  a  shield  they  proved  against  the  death- 
blow afterwards — he  went,  walked  fearlessly  and  carelessly  through  the  streets, 
met  and  conferred  with  a  rebel  leader  who  had  remained  there,  and  when  he 
returned  to  City  Point,  telegraplied  to  his  faithful  friend  and  constitutional 
adviser,  who  till  then  had  feared  as  we  all  did  at  that  time  for  his  life : 


208 

"  I  received  your  despatch  last  night,  went  to  Richmond  this  morning,  and  have 
just  returned. 

"  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN." 

When  I  told  him,  on  that  last  night,  how  uneasy  all  had  been  at  his  going, 
he  replied,  pleasantly  and  with  a  smile,  (I  quote  his  exact  words,)  "Why,  it" 
any  one  else  had  been  President  and  gone  to  Richmond,  I  would  have  been 
alarmed  too;  but  I  was  not  scared  about  myself  a  bit." 

If  any  of  you  have  even  been  at  Washington,  you  will  remember  the  foot- 
path lined  and  embowered  with  trees  leading  from  the  back  door  of  the  War 
Department  to  the  White  House.  One  night,  and  but  recently  too,  when,  in 
his  anxiety  for  news  from  the  army,  he  had  been  with  the  Secretary  in  the 
telegraph  office  of  the  Department,  he  was  about  starting  home  at  a  late  hour 
by  this  short  route,  Mr.  Stanton  stopped  him  and  said,  "  You  ought  not  to  go 
that  way ;  it  is  dangerous  for  you  even  in  the  daytime,  but  worse  at  night." 
Mr.  Lincoln  replied,  "  I  don't  believe  there's  any  danger  there,  day  or  night." 
Mr.  Stanton  responded  solemnly,  "Well,  Mr.  President,  you  shall  not  be  killed 
returning  that  dark  way  from  my  Department  while  I  am  in  it ;  you  must  let 
me  take  you  round  by  the  avenue  in  my  carriage."  And  Mr.  Lincoln,  joking 
the  Secretary  on  his  imperious  military  orders  and  his  needless  alarm  on  his 
account,  as  he  called  it,  entered  his  carriage  and  was  driven  by  the  well-lighted 
avenue  to  the  White  House. 

And  thus  he  walked  through  unseen  dangers,  without  "  the  dread  of  death;" 
his  warm  heart  so  full  of  good  will,  even  to  his  enemies,  that  he  could  not 
imagine  there  was  any  one  base  enough  to  slay  him  }  and  the  death-dealing 
bullet  was  sped  to  its  mark  in  a  theatre,  where,  but  little  over  an  hour  before, 
he  had  been  welcomed  as  he  entered  by  a  crowded  audience  rising,  and  with 
cheers  and  waving  of  handkerchiefs,  honoring  him  with  an  ovation  of  which 
any  one  might  well  be  proud.  Some  regret  that  he  was  there  at  all.  But,  to 
all  human  appearance,  he  was  safer  there,  by  far,  than  in  his  own  reception- 
room,  where  unknown  visitors  so  often  entered  alone.  He  found  there  a 
temporary  respite  occasionally  from  the  crowds  who  thronged  his  ante-rooms — 
relaxation  from  the  cares  and  perplexities  which  so  constantly  oppressed  him, 
keeping  his  mind  under  the  severest  tension,  like  the  bent  bow,  till  it  almost 
lost  its  spring — and,  on  this  fatal  night,  to  be  so  black  an  one  hereafter  in  our 
calendar,  going  with  reluctance,  and,  as  he  expressed  it  to  Mr.  Ashmun  and 
myself,  only  because  General  Grant,  who  had  been  advertised  with  himself  to 
be  present,  had  been  compelled  to  leave  the  city,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  disap- 
point those  who  would  expect  to  see  him  there. 

To  those  who  have  expressed  their  regrets  that  the  murderer  found  him  in  a 
theatre,  let  me  further  add  that,  by  the  etiquette  of  Washington,  the  President 
is  prohibited  from  making  or  returning  calls,  except  in  the  case  of  the  danger- 
ous illness  of  some  intimate  friend.  If  he  made  one  social  visit,  the  thousands 
whom  he  could  not  call  on,  especially  distinguished  strangers  from  abroad, 
would  feel  the  discrimination.  And  hence,  a  President,  not  able  to  enjoy  a 
social  evening  at  some  friend's  mansion,  as  all  of  us  can,  must  remain  within 
the  four  walls  of  the  White  House,  or  seek  relaxation  from  the  engrossing  cares 


209 

which  always  confront  him  there  from  sunrise  till  midnight  at  some  public 
place  of  amusement.  I  remember  that,  when  we  heard  of  those  bloody  battles 
of  the  Wilderness  which  any  one  less  persistent  than  General  Grant  would  have 
regarded  as  reverses  that  justified  retreat,  Mr.  Lincoln  went  to  the  opera,  say- 
ing :  "  People  may  think  strange  of  it,  but  I  must  have  some  relief  from  this 
terrible  anxiety,  or  it  will  kill  me." 

Of  the  many  thousands  of  persons  I  have  met  in  public  or  private  life,  I 
cannot  call  to  mind  a  single  one  who  exceeded  him  in  calmness  of  temper,  in 
kindness  of  disposition,  and  in  overflowing  generosity  of  impulse.  I  doubt  if 
his  most  intimate  associate  ever  heard  him  utter  bitter  or  vindictive  language. 
He  seemed  wholly  free  from  malignity  or  revenge,  from  ill-will  or  injustice. 
Attacked  ever  so  sharply,  you  all  remember  that  he  never  answered  railing 
with  railing.  Criticised  ever  so  unjustly,  he  would  reply  with  no  word  of  re- 
proof, but  patiently  and  uncomplainingly,  if  he  answered  at  all,  strive  to  prove 
that  he  stood  on  the  rock  of  right.  When,  from  the  halls  of  Congress  or  else- 
where, his  most  earnest  opponents  visited  the  White  House  with  business,  they 
would  be  met  as  frankly,  listened  to  as  intently,  and  treated  as  justly  as  his 
most  earnest  friends.  It  could  be  said  of  him  as  Pyrrhus  said  of  Fabricius, 
when  the  latter,  though  in  hostile  array,  exposed  to  his  enemy  the  treachery 
of  his  physician,  who  proffered  to  poison  him :  "  It  is  easier  to  turn  the  sun  from 
his  career  than  Fabricius  from  his  honesty."  Men  of  all  parties  will  remem- 
ber, when  the  exciting  contest  of  last  fall  ended  in  his  triumphant  re-election, 
his  first  word  thereafter,  from  the  portico  of  the  White  House,  was,  that  he 
could  not  and  would  not  exult  over  his  countrymen  who  had  differed  with  his 
policy. 

And  thus  he  ruled,  and  thus  he  lived,  and  thus  he  died.  The  wretch  who 
stood  behind  him  and  sent  his  bullet  crashing  through  that  brain,  which  had 
been  devising  plans  of  reconciliation  with  the  country's  deadly  foes,  as  he 
leaped  upon  the  stage  and  exulted  over  the  death  of  him  whom  he  denounced 
as  a  tyrant,  uttered  as  foul  a  falsehood  as  the  lying  witnesses  who  caused  the 
conviction  and  the  crucifixion  of  the  Son  of  Man,  on  the  same  Good  Friday, 
nearly  two  thousand  years  ago.  I  would  not  compare  the  human  with  the 
Divine,  except  in  that  immeasurable  contrast  of  the  finite  with  the  infinite. 
But  his  whole  life  proves  to  me  that  if  he  could  have  had  a  single  moment  of 
consciousness  and  of  speech,  his  great  heart  would  have  prompted  him  to  pray 
for  those  who  had  plotted  for  his  blood,  "  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know 
not  what  they  do." 

He  bore  the  nation's  perils  and  trials  and  sorrows  ever  on  his  mind.  You 
knew  him,  in  a  large  degree,  by  the  illustrative  stories,  of  which  his  memory 
and  his  tongue  were  so  prolific,  using  them  to  point  a  moral,  or  to  soften  dis- 
content at  his  decisions  ;  but  this  was  the  mere  badinage  which  relieved  him  for 
the  moment  from  the  heavy  weight  of  public  duties  and  responsibilities  under 
which  he  often  wearied.  Those  whom  he  admitted  to  his  confidence,  and  with 
whom  he  conversed  of  his  feelings,  knew  that  his  inner  life  was  checkered  with 
the  deepest  anxiety  and  most  discomforting  solicitude.  Elated  by  victories  for 
the  cause  which  was  ever  in  his  thoughts,  reverses  to  our  arms  cast  a  pall  of 
depression  over  him.  One  morning,  over  two  years  ago,  calling  upon  him  on 
14 


210 

business,  I  found  him  looking  more  than  usually  pale  and  careworn,  and 
inquired  the  reason.     He  replied,  with  the  bad  news  he  had  received  at  a  late 
hour  the  previous  night,  which  had  not  yet  been  communicated  to  the  press, 
adding  that  he  had  not  closed  his  eyes  or  breakfasted ;  and,  with  an  expression 
I  shall  never  forget,  he  exclaimed,  "How  willingly  would  I  exchange  places 
to-day  with  the  soldier  who  sleeps  on  the  ground  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac." 
He  was  as  free  from  deceit  as  from  guile.     He  had  one  peculiarity  which 
often  misled  those  with  whom  he  conversed.     When  his  judgment,  which  acted 
slowly,  but  which  was  almost  as  immovable  as  the  eternal  hills  when  settled, 
was  grasping  some  subject  of  importance,  the  arguments  against  his  own  de- 
sires seemed  uppermost  in  his  mind,  and  in  conversing  upon  it  he  would  present 
these  arguments  to  see  if  they  could  be  rebutted.     He  thus  often  surprised  both 
friend  and  foe  in  his  final  decisions.     Always  willing  to  listen  to  all  sides  till 
the  latest  possible  moment,  yet,  when  he  put  down  his  foot,  he  never  took  a 
backward  step.     Once  speaking  of  an  eminent  statesman,  he  said :  "  When  a 
question  confronts  him  he  always  and  naturally  argues  it  from  the  standpoint 
of  which  is  the  better  policy;  but  with  me,"  he  added,  "my  only  desire  is  to 
see  what  is  right."     And  this  is  the  key  to  his  life.     His  parents  left  Kentucky 
for  Indiana  in  hia  childhood  on  account  of  slavery  in  the  former  State,  and  he 
thus  inherited  a  dislike  for  that  institution.     As  he  said  recently  to  Gov.  Bram- 
lette,  of  his  native  State,  "  If  slavery  is  not  wrong,  nothing  is  wrong."     Moving 
to  Illinois,  he  found  the  prejudice  there  against  anti-slavery  men,  when  he 
entered  on  public  and  professional  life,  more  intense  than  in  any  other  free 
State  in  the  Union.     But  he  never  dissembled,  never  concealed  his  opinions. 
Entering,  in  1858,  on  that  contest  with  his  great  political  rival  but  personal 
friend,  Judge  Douglas,  which  attracted  the  attention  of  the  whole  Union,  he 
startled  many  of  his  friends  by  the  declaration  of  his  convictions  that  the  Union 
could  not  permanently  endure  half  slave  and  half    free — that  ultimately  it 
would  be  either  the  one  or  the  other,  or  be  a  divided  house  that  could  not 
stand — that  he  did  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved  or  the  house  to  fall, 
but  that  it  would  cease  to  be  divided— and  that  the  hope  of  the  Republic  was 
in  staying  the  spread  of  slavery  that  the  public  mind  might  rest  in  the  hope  of 
its  ultimate  extinction.     And  though. he  coupled  this  with  declaration  against 
Congressional  interference  with  it  in  existing  States,  it  was  not  popular,  and 
kept  him  in  the  whole  canvass  upon  the  defensive.     But  to  every  argument 
against  it  his  calm  reply  was,  in  substance,  "  such  is  my  clear  conviction,  and  I 
cannot  unsay  it." 

His  frankness  in  expressing  unpopular  opinions  was  manifested  also  when,  in 
Southern  Illinois,  before  an  audience  almost  unanimously  hostile  to  the  senti- 
ment, he  declared  in  the  same  close  and  doubtful  contest,  that,  when  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  proclaimed  that  all  men  were  created  free  and  equal,  it  did 
not  mean  white  men  alone,  but  negroes  as  well,  and  that  their  rights  to  life,  lib- 
erty, and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  were  as  inalienable  as  the  noblest  in  the  land. 
He  claimed  no  power  over  State  laws  in  other  States  which  conflicted  with  these 
rights,  or  curtailed  them ;  but  with  unfaltering  devotion  to  his  conscientious 
conviction,  and  regardless  of  its  effects  on  his  political  prospects,  he  never  wa- 
vered in  his  adherence  to  this  truth.     And  yet,  when  elected  President  of  the 


211 

United  States  he  executed  the  fugitive  slave  law,  because  his  oath  of  office  as 
the  Executive,  in  his  opinion,  required  it.  When  urged  to  strike  at  slavery 
under  the  war  power,  he  replied  in  a  widely  published  letter,  "  My  paramount 
object  is  to  save  the  Union,  and  I  would  save  it  in  the  shortest  way.  If  I  could 
save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slaves,  I  would  do  it.  If  I  could  save  it 
by  freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it;  and  if  I  could  do  it  by  freeing  some  and 
leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also  do  that.  But  I  intend  no  modification  of 
my  often  expressed  personal  wish  that  all  men  everywhere  could  be  free."  And 
when  at  last  the  hour  arrived  when,  in  his  honest  opinion,  the  alternative  be- 
tween the  death  of  slavery  and  the  death  of  the  Union  confronted  him,  then, 
and  not  till  then,  he  struck  at  the  cause  of  all  our  woes  with  the  battle-axe  of  the 
Union.  Signing  that  immortal  proclamation  which  made  him  the  Liberator  of 
America,  on  the  afternoon  of  January  1st,  1863,  after  hours  of  New  Year's  hand- 
shaking, he  said  to  me  and  other  friends  that  night,  "  The  signature  looks  a 
little  tremulous,  for  my  hand  was  tired  ;  but  my  resolution  was  firm.  I  told 
them  in  September,  if  they  did  not  return  to  their  allegiance  and  cease  mur- 
dering our  soldiers,  I  would  strike  at  this  pillar  of  their  strength.  And  now 
the  promise  shall  be  kept ;  and  not  one  word  of  it  will  I  ever  recall."  And 
the  promise  was  kept,  and  every  word  of  it  has  stood.  Thank  God,  when 
slavery  and  treason  benumbed  that  hand  in  death,  they  could  not  destroy  that 
noble  instrument  to  which  that  hand  had  given  a  life  that  shall  never  die.  A 
great  writer  said  that  when  Wilberforce  stood  at  the  bar  of  God  he  held  in  his 
hands  the  broken  shackles  which  on  earth  had  bound  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  his  fellow  men.  But,  when  bafiled  treason  hurried  Abraham  Lincoln  into 
the  presence  of  his  Maker,  he  bore  with  him  the  manacles  of  four  millions 
whom  he  had  made  free — fetters  that  no  power  on  God's  footstool  is  strong 
enough  to  place  again  on  their  enfranchised  limbs. 

No  man  in  our  era,  clothed  with  such  vast  power,  has  ever  used  it  so  merci- 
fully. No  ruler  holding  the  keys  of  life  and  death  ever  pardoned  so  many  and 
BO  easily.  When  friends  said  to  him  they  wished  he  had  more  of  Jackson's 
sternness,  he  would  say,  "  I  am  just  as  God  made  me,  and  cannot  change."  It 
may  not  be  generally  known  that  his  doorkeepers  had  standing  orders  from 
him,  that  no  matter  how  great  might  be  the  throng,  if  Senators  and  Rep- 
resentatives had  to  wait  or  to  be  turned  away  without  an  audience,  he  must  see, 
before  the  day  closed,  every  messenger  who  came  to  him  with  a  petition  for  the 
saving  of  life.  One  night  in  February  I  left  all  other  business  to  ask  him  to 
respite  the  son  of  a  constituent,  who  was  sentenced  to  be  shot,  at  Davenport, 
for  desertion.  He  heard  the  story  with  his  usual  patience,  though  he  was 
wearied  out  with  incessant  calls,  and  anxious  for  rest,  and  then  replied:  "Some 
of  our  generals  complain  that  I  impair  discipline  and  subordination  in  the 
array  by  my  pardons  and  respites,  but  it  makes  me  rested,  after  a  day's  hard 
work,  if  I  can  find  some  good  excuse  for  saving  a  man's  life,  and  I  go  to  bed 
happy,  as  I  think  how  joyous  the  signing  of  my  name  will  make  him,  and  his 
family,  and  his  friends."  And  with  a  happy  smile  beaming  over  that  care- 
furrowed  face,  he  signed  that  name  that  saved  that  life. 

But  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  only  a  good  and  a  just  and  a  generous  and  a 
humane  man.     I  could  not  be  just  to  that  well-rounded  character  of  his  with- 


212 

out  adding  that  he  was  also  a  praying  man.  He  often  said  that  his  reliance  in 
the  gloomiest  hours  was  on  his  God,  to  whom  he  appealed  in  prayer,  although 
he  never  became  a  professor  of  religion.  To  a  clergyman  who  asked  him  if  he 
loved  his  Saviour,  he  replied,  and  he  was  too  truthful  for  us  to  doubt  the  decla- 
ration :  "When  I  was  first  inaugurated  I  did  not  love  Him :  when  God  took  my 
son  I  was  greatly  impressed,  but  still  I  did  not  love  Him  ;  but  when  I  stood 
upon  the  battle-field  of  Gettysburg,  I  gave  my  heart  to  Christ,  and  I  can  now 
say  I  do  lore  the  Saviour." 

Two  of  my  fellow-members,  Messrs  Wilson  of  Iowa,  and  Casey  of  Ken- 
tucky, called  upon  him  at  one  of  those  periods  when  reverses  had  dispirited  our 
people.  Conversing  about  the  prospects  of  our  country,  one  of  them  said, 
"  Well,  Mr.  President,  I  have  faith  that  Providence  is  with  us,  and  if  the  people 
are  but  true  to  the  cause,  all  will  be  right."  Mr.  Lincoln  gravely  replied,  with 
deep  solemnity  in  his  tone,  "  I  have  a  higher  faith  than  yours.  I  have  a  faith, 
not  only  that  God  is  with  our  cause,  but  that  He  will  control  the  hearts  of  the 
people  so  that  they  will  be  faithful  to  it  too." 

The  Bible  was  always  in  his  reception  room.  I  have  doubted  the  report 
that  he  read  an  hour  in  it  every  day,  for  he  often  came  direct  from  his  bed  to 
his  reception  room,  so  anxious  was  he  to  accommodate  members  who  had  im- 
portant business,  and  it  would  sometimes  be  two  or  three  hours  before  he  would 
playfully  say  to  some  friend  whose  turn  had  come,  "Won't  you  stay  here  till  I 
get  some  breakfast?"     But  he  must  have  read  the  Bfble  considerably,  for  he 

often  quoted  it.     One  day  that  I  happened  to  come  in,  he  said,  "  Mr. has 

just  been  here  attacking  one  of  my  Cabinet,  but  I  stopped  him  with  this  text," 
and  he  read  from  the  Proverbs  a  text  I  had  never  heard  quoted  before,  as  fol- 
lows: "Accuse  not  the  servant  to  his  master." 

You  cannot  fail  to  have  noticed  the  solemn  and  sometimes  almost  mournful 
strain  that  pervades  many  of  his  addresses.  When  he  left  Springfield,  in  1861, 
to  assume  the  Presidency,  his  farewell  words  were  as  follows  : 

"  Mt  Feiends:  No  one  not  in  my  position  can  appreciate  the  sadness  I  feel  at 
this  parting.  To  this  people  I  owe  all  that  I  am.  Here  I  have  lived  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century ;  here  my  children  were  born,  and  here  one  of  them 
lies  buried.  I  know  not  how  soon  I  shall  see  you  again.  A  duty  devolves 
upon  me  which  is,  perhaps,  greater  than  that  which  has  devolved  upon  any 
other  man  since  the  days  of  Washington.  He  never  would  have  succeeded 
except  for  the  aid  of  Divine  Providence,  upon  which  he  at  all  times  relied.  I 
feel  that  I  cannot  succeed  without  the  same  Divine  aid  which  sustained  him, 
and  on  the  same  Almighty  Being  I  place  my  reliance  for  support;  and  I  hope 
you,  my  friends,  will  all  pray  that  I  may  receive  that  Divine  assistance,  with- 
out which  I  cannot  succeed,  but  with  which  success  is  certain.  Again  I  bid 
you  all  an  afi"ectionate  farewell." 

Before  that  murderer's  blow  closed  his  eyes  in  death,  that  "success"  for  which 
he  had  struggled  was  assured — that  "duty"  devolved  upon  him  had  been  per-, 
formed.     But  the  friends  to  whom,  with   "the  sadness  he  felt  at  parting,"  he 


213 

bade  this  "  aflfectionate  farewell,"  can  only  look  upon  his  lifeless  corpse,  now 
elowly  borne  to  their  midst. 

When,  in  the  same  month,  he  raised  the  national  flag  over  Independence  Hall, 
at  Philadelphia,  he  said  to  the  assembled  tens  of  thousands :  "  It  was  something 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  giving  liberty,  not  only  to  the  people  of 
this  country,  but  hope  to  the  world  for  all  coming  time.  It  was  that  which 
gave  promise  that  in  due  time  the  weights  should  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders 
of  all  men,  and  that  all  should  have  an  equal  chance.  *  *  *  * 
Now,  my  friends,  can  this  country  be  saved  upon  that  basis?  If  it  can,  I  will 
consider  myself  one  of  the  happiest  men  in  the  world  if  I  can  help  to  save  it. 
But  if  this  country  cannot  be  saved  without  giving  up  that  principle,  I  was 
about  to  say  that  I  would  rather  he  assassinated  upon  the  spot  than  to  surrender 
it.  I  have  said  nothing  but  what  I  am  willing  to  live  by,  and  if  it  be  the 
pleasure  of  Almighty  God,  to  die  by." 

He  seemed,  as  he  thus  spoke,  to  have  the  dark  shadow  of  his  violent  death 
before  him.  But  even  in  its  presence  he  declared  that  he  would  rather  be  as- 
sassinated than  to  surrender  a  principle  ;  and  that  while  he  was  willing  to  live 
by  it,  yet,  if  it  was  God's  pleasure,  he  was  equally  willing  to  die  by  it.  He 
was  assassinated,  but  his  name  and  principles  will  live  while  history  exists  and 
the  republic  endures. 

So,  too,  in  the  conclusion  of  his  first  inaugural,  he  appealed  in  the  language 
of  entreaty  and  peace  to  those  who  had  raised  their  mailed  hands  against  the 
life  of  their  father-land : 

"  You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors.  You 
have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy  the  government,  while  I  have 
the  most  solemn  one  to  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  it.  The  mystic  cord  of 
memory,  stretching  from  every  battle-field  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living 
heart  and  hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the 
Union,  when  again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our 
nature." 

In  all  my  literary  reading,  I  have  never  found  a  more  beautiful  and  touching 
sentence  than  the  one  I  have  just  quoted. 

In  the  funeral  exercises  in  the  East  Room  on  the  19th  of  April,  the  very  an- 
niversary of  the  day  when  the  blood  of  murdered  Massachusetts  soldiers  stained 
the  stones  of  the  city  of  Baltimore,  Dr.  Gurley  quoted  the  President's  solemn 
reply  to  a  company  of  clergymen  who  called  on  him  in  one  of  the  darkest  hours 
of  the  war,  when,  standing  where  his  lifeless  remains  then  rested,  he  replied 
to  them  in  tones  of  deep  emotion : 

"  Gentlemen,  my  hope  of  success  in  this  great  and  terrible  struggle  rests  on 
that  immutable  foundation,  the  justness  and  goodness  of  God.  And  when  events 
are  very  threatening  and  prospects  very  dark,  I  still  hope  in  some  way,  which 
man  cannot  see,  all  will  be  well  in  the  end,  because  our  cause  is  just  and  God 
is  on  oar  side." 


214 

You  cannot  have  forgotten  this  impressive  invocation  with  which  ho  closed 
his  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  : 

"  And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of  justice,  warranted  by 
the  Constitution  on  military  necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of 
mankind,  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God." 

The  solemn  words  of  his  last  inaugural  sound  in  my  ears  to-day  as  I  heard 
them  fall  from  his  lips  only  last  month,  on  the  steps  of  the  Capitol.  There  was 
no  exultation  over  his  own  success,  though  he  was  the  first  Northern  President 
who  had  ever  been  re-elected.  There  was  no  bitterness  against  the  men  who 
had  filled  our  land  with  new-made  graves,  and  who  were  striving  to  stab  the 
nation  to  its  death.  There  was  no  confident  and  enthusiastic  prediction  of  the 
country's  triumph.  But,  with  almost  the  solemn  utterances  of  one  of  the  He- 
brew prophets  ;  as  if  he  felt  he  was  standing,  as  he  was,  on  the  verge  of  his 
open  grave,  and  addressing  his  last  official  words  to  his  countrymen,  with  his 
lips  touched  by  the  finger  of  inspiration,  he  said : 

"The  Almighty  has  his  own  purposes.  'Woe  unto  the  world  because  of  of- 
fences, for  it  must  needs  be  that  offences  come ;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom 
the  offence  cometh.'  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery  is  one  of  those 
offences  which  in  the  providence  of  God  must  needs  come,  but  which,  having 
continued  through  His  appointed  time.  He  now  wills  to  remove,  and  that  He 
gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible  war  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by 
whom  the  offence  came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure  from  those 
divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living  God  always  ascribe  to  Him  ? 
Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  that  mighty  scourge  of  war  may 
soon  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  will  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by 
the  bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk, 
and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  with  another 
drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  bo 
said,  '  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether.' 

"With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right,  as 
God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in;  to 
bind  up  the  nation's  wounds,  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle 
and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphans,  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a 
just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations." 

What  a  portraiture  of  his  own  character  he  unconsciously  draws  in  this 
closing  paragraph :  "With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firm- 
ness in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right."     And  yet  they  slew  him! 

As  this  extraordinary  state  paper  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  the  Old  World,  it 
elicited  the  most  profound  interest.  Mr.  Gladstone,  himself  the  most  eloquent 
of  living  English  statesmen,  spoke  in  the  most  elevated  eulogy  of  it,  saying 
that  it  showed  a  moral  elevation  which  commanded  the  highest  respect ;  adding 
in  emphatic  language,  "  I  am  taken  captive  by  so  striking  an  utterance  as  this; 
for  I  see  in  it  the  effect  of  sharp  trial,  when  rightly  borne,  to  raise  men  to  a 
higher  level  of  thought  and  feeling  than  any  could  otherwise  reach."     And  the 


215 

British  Standard  declared  it  "the  most  remarkable  thing  of  the  sort  ever  pro- 
nounced by  any  President  of  the  United  States  from  the  first  day  until  now.  Its 
Alpha  and  its  Omega  is  Almighty  God,  the  God  of  justice  and  the  Father  of  mercies, 
who  is  working  out  the  purposes  of  his  love.  It  is  invested  with  a  dignity  and 
pathos  which  lift  it  high  above  everything  of  the  kind,  whether  in  the  Old 
World  or  the  New." 

Bear  with  me  further  while  I  quote  one  letter,  when,  in  the  midst  of  the  ex- 
citing canvass  of  last  fall,  in  which  he  was  so  deeply  interested,  during  the  very 
week  that  he  was  being  denounced  in  Chicago,  as  scarcely  any  man  had  ever 
been  denounced  before,  he  shut  out  the  thoughts  of  these  cruelly  unjust  asper- 
sions to  write  in  this  deeply  impressive  strain  to  a  Philadelphia  lady,  thea 
resident  in  England: 

"  Executive  Mansion, 
"  Washington,  Sept.  6,  1864. 
"  Eliza  B.  Gueney  : 

"  My  Esteemed  Feiend  :  I  have  never  forgotten,  probably  nover  shall  forget, 
the  very  impressive  occasion,  when  yourself  and  friends  visited  me  on  a  Sab- 
bath forenoon,  two  years  ago,  nor  has  your  kind  letter,  written  nearly  a  year 
later,  ever  been  forgotten. 

"  In  all  it  has  been  your  purpose  to  strengthen  my  reliance  on  God.  I  am 
much  indebted  to  the  good  Christian  people  of  the  country  for  their  constant 
prayers  and  consolations,  and  no  one  of  them  more  than  yourself.  The  pur- 
poses of  the  Almighty  are  perfect  and  must  prevail,  though  we  erring  mortals 
may  fail  to  perceive  them  in  advance. 

"  We  hoped  for  a  happy  termination  of  this  terrible  war  long  before  this,  but 
God  knows  best,  and  has  ruled  otherwise.  We  shall  acknowledge  His  wisdom 
and  our  own  errors  therein.  Meanwhile  we  must  work  earnestly  in  the  best 
light  He  gives  us,  trusting  that  so  working  still  conduces  to  the  great  end  He 
ordains.  Surely  He  intends  some  great  good  to  follow  this  mighty  convulsioa 
which  no  mortal  could  stay.  Your  people — the  Friends — have  had  and  are  hav- 
ing very  great  trial  on  principle  and  faith." 

I  stop  here  in  the  reading  of  this  letter  to  draw  your  attention  to  the  next 
sentence,  which  illustrates  Mr.  Lincoln's  power  in  stating  facts.  He  seemed  to 
have  the  rare  ability  of  taking  a  great  truth,  a  living  principle,  or  a  striking 
argument,  out  of  all  the  mists  that  might  be  gathered  around  it,  and  place  it 
before  you  so  vividly,  in  a  single  sentence,  that  the  presentation  of  it  by  others 
would  contrast  with  his  as  a  picture  flat  before  your  eyes  compares  with  the 
figures  in  the  same  picture  brought  out  so  palpably  and  lifelike  under  the 
linocular  mystery  of  the  stereoscope.  Witness  the  striking  condensation  and 
unanswerable  argument  of  this  next  sentence : 

"  Opposed  to  both  war  and  oppression,  they  can  only  practically  oppose  op- 
pression by  war.  In  this  hard  dilemma  some  have  chosen  one  horn  and  some 
the  other.  For  those  appealing  to  me  on  conscientious  grounds,  I  have  done, 
and  shall  do  the  best  I   can  in  my  own  conscience,  and  my  oath  to  the  law. 


216 

That  you  believe  this  I  doubt  not,  and  believing  it,  I  shall  still  receive,  for  our 
country  and  myself,  your  earnest  prayers  to  our  Father  in  heaven. 
"  Your  sincere  friend, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

And  yet,  while  he  was  writing  this  beautiful  letter,  he  was  denounced  at 
Chicago  as  a  tyrant  and  usurper,  and  compared  to  Nero  and  Caligula,  and 
every  other  vile  wretch  whose  black  deeds  darken  the  page  of  history. 

Nor  should  I  forget  to  mention  here  that  the  last  act  of  Congress  ever  signed 
by  him,  was  one  requiring  that  the  motto,  in  which  he  sincerely  believed,  "  la 
God  we  trust,"  should  hereafter  be  inscribed  upon  all  our  national  coin. 
'  But  April  came  at  last,  with  all  its  glorious  resurrection  of  spring — that 
spring  which  he  was  not  to  see  ripening  into  summer.  The  last  sands  in  the 
hour-glass  of  his  life  were  falling.  His  last  moment  drew  nigh  ;  for  his  banded 
assassins,  foiled  in  an  attempt  to  poison  him  last  year,  (a  plot  only  discov- 
ered since  detectives  have  been  tracking  the  mysteries  of  his  death,)  had  re- 
solved this  time  on  striking  a  surer  blow.  Victory  after  victory  crowned  our 
national  armies.  A  hundred  captured  rebel  banners  filled  the  War  Department. 
Scores  of  thousands  of  rebel  soldiers  had  surrendered,  and  all  over  the  republic 
the  joyous  acclaim  of  millions  hailed  the  promised  land  of  peace.  But  our  be- 
loved leader  was  to  enter  another  land  of  rest.  Thank  Heaven,  though  wicked 
men  may  kill  the  body,  they  cannot  kill  the  immortal  soul.  And  if  the  spirits 
of  the  good  men  who  have  left  us  are  permitted  to  look  back  on  the  land  they 
loved  in  life,  it  is  not  presumptuous  to  believe  that  Washington  and  Lincoln, 
from  the  shining  courts  above,  look  down  to-day  with  paternal  interest  on  the 
nation  which,  under  Providence,  the  one  had  founded  and  the  other  saved,  and 
which  will  entwine  their  names  together  in  hallowed  recollection  forever. 

But  in  his  last  hours  all  these  affectionate  traits  of  character,  which  I  have 
so  inadequately  delineated,  shone  out  in  more  than  wonted  brilliancy.  How 
his  kindly  heart  must  have  throbbed  with  joy  as,  on  the  very  day  before  his 
death,  he  gladdened  so  many  tens  of  thousands  of  anxious  minds  by  ordering 
the  abandonment  of  the  impending  but  now  not  needed  draft!  With  what 
generous  magnanimity  he  authorized  our  heroic  Lieutenant  General  to  proffer 
terms  unparalleled  in  their  liberality  to  the  army  of  Virginia,  so  long  the  bul- 
wark of  rebellion !  And  the  very  last  official  act  of  his  life  was,  when  learning  by 
telegraph,  that  very  Friday  afternoon,  that  two  of  the  leaders  and  concocters 
of  the  rebellion  were  expected  to  arrive  disguised,  in  a  few  hours,  at  one  of  our 
ports,  to  escape  to  Europe,  he  instructed  our  officers  not  to  arrest  them,  but  let 
them  flee  the  country.  He  did  not  wish  their  blood,  but  their  associates  thirsted 
for  his,  and,  in  a  few  short  hours  after  this  message  of  mercy  to  save  their  friends 
from  death  sped  on  the  wings  of  lightning,  with  wicked  hands  they  slew  him. 
No  last  words  of  affection  to  weeping  wife  and  children  did  they  allow  him. 
No  moment's  space  for  prayer  to  God.  But  in  order  that  consciousness  might 
end  with  the  instant,  the  pistol  was  held  close  to  the  skull,  that  the  bullet  might 
be  buried  in  his  brain. 

Thus  lived  and  thus  died  our  murdered  President.  But,  as  the  ruffian  shot 
down  the  pilot  at  our  helm,  just  as  the  ship  of  State,  after  all  its  stormy  seas, 
•was  sailing  prosperously  into  port,  another,  whose  life,  like  that  of  Seward  and 


217 

Stanton,  had  been  marked  for  that  very  night  of  horrors,  but  who  had  been 
saved,  sprang  to  the  rudder,  and  the  noble  ship  holds  on  her  course,  without  a 
flutter  in  her  canvas  or  a  strain  upon  her  keel.  Andrew  Johnson,  to  whom 
the  public  confidence  was  so  quickly  and  worthily  transferred,  is  cast  in  a  sterner 
mold  than  him  whose  place  he  fills.  He  has  warred  on  traitors  in  his  mountain 
home  as  they  have  warred  on  him ;  and  he  insists,  with  this  crowning  infamy 
filling  up  their  cup  of  wickedness,  that  treason  should  be  made  odious,  and  that 
mercy  to  the  leaders  who  engendered  it  is  cruelty  to  the  nation. 

The  text  of  Holy  Writ,  which  he  believes  in  for  them,  is  in  the  26th  verse  of 
the  7th  chapter  of  Ezra:  "  Let  judgment  be  executed  speedily  upon  him, 
whether  it  be  unto  death,  or  to  banishment,  or  to  confiscation  of  goods,  or  to 
imprisonment;"  and  to  this  do  not  all  loyal  hearts  respond  amen? 

And  thus,  though  the  President  is  slain,  the  nation  lives.  The  statesman 
who  has  so  successfully  conducted  our  foreign  correspondence  as  to  save  us  from 
threatened  and  endangering  complications  and  difficulties  abroad,  and  who,  with 
the  President,  leaned  over  to  mercy's  side,  so  brutally  bowie-knifed  as  he  lay 
helpless  on  his  bed  of  anguish,  is  happily  to  be  spared  us ;  and  the  conspiracy 
which  intended  a  bloody  harvest  of  six  patriots'  lives,  reaped  with  its  murderous 
sickle  but  one. 

But  that  one — how  dear  to  all  our  hearts — how  priceless  in  its  worth,  how 
transparent  and  spotless  its  purity  of  character.  In  the  fiery  trial  to  which  the 
nation  has  been  subjected,  we  have  given  of  the  bravest  and  the  best  of  the 
land.  The  South  is  billowed  with  the  graves  where  sleep  the  patriot  martyrs 
of  constitutional  liberty  till  the  resurrection  morn.  The  vacant  chair  at  the 
table  of  thousands  upon  thousands  tells  of  those  who,  inspired  by  the  sublimest 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  have  died  that  the  republic  might  survive.  Golden  and 
living  treasures  have  been  heaped  upon  our  country's  altar.  But  after  all  these 
costly  sacrifices  had  been  offered,  and  the  end  seemed  almost  at  hand,  a  costlier 
sacrifice  had  to  be  made ;  and  from  the  highest  place  in  all  the  land  the  victim 
came.  Slaughtered  at  the  moment  of  victory,  the  blow  was  too  late  to  rob  him 
of  the  grand  place  he  has  won  for  himself  in  history. 

'We  know  him  now.    All  narrow  jealousies 
Are  silent.     And  we  see  him  as  he  moved — 
How  modest,  kindly,  all  compassionate,  wise, 
With  what  sublime  repression  of  himself, 
And  in  what  limits  and  how  tenderly. 
Whose  glory  was  redressing  human  wrongs; 
Not  making  his  high  place  the  lawless  perch 
Of  winged  ambitions,  nor  a  vantage  ground 
Of  pleasure.     But  through  all  this  tract  of  years, 
Wearing  the  white  flower  of  a  blameless  life." 

Murdered,  coffined,  buried,  he  will  live  with  those  few  immortal  names  who 
were  not  born  to  die  ;  live  as  the  Father  of  the  Faithful  in  the  time  that  tried 
men's  souls ;  live  in  the  grateful  hearts  of  the  dark -browed  race  he  lifted  under 
the  heel  of  the  oppressor  to  the  dignity  of  freedom  and  of  manhood ;  live  in 


218 

every  bereaved  circle  ■which  has  given  father,  husband,  son,  or  friend  to  die,  aa 
he  did,  for  his  country ;  live  with  the  glorious  company  of  martyrs  to  liberty, 
justice,  and  humanity,  that  trio  of  Heaven-born  principjles;  live  in  the  love  of 
all  beneath  the  circuit  of  the  sun,  who  loathe  tyranny,  slavery,  and  wrong. 
And,  leaving  behind  him  a  record  that  shows  how  honesty  and  principle  lifted 
him,  self-mado  as  he  was,  from  the  humblest  ranks  of  the  people  to  the  noblest 
station  on  the  globe,  and  a  name  that  shall  brighten  under  the  eye  of  posterity 
as  the  ages  roll  by — 

"  From  the  top  of  Fame's  ladder  he  stepped  to  the  sky." 

Notwithstanding  tlie  request  of  the  speaker  that  the  audience 
■would  not  applaud,  it  was  impossible  to  restrain  them,  and  Mr. 
Colfax  was  repeatedly  interrupted. 

From  Chicago  to  Springfield  the  funeral  train  was  greeted 
with  mournful  demonstrations  of  respect.  At  Lockport  the 
night  was  illuminated  with  bonfires,  and  hundreds  of  persons 
holding  torches  in  their  hands.  The  buildings  were  draped  with 
symbols  of  sorrow,  and  in  the  reflected  liglit  was  read  the 
touching  and  appropriate  motto,  "  Come  Home." 

At  Joliet,  twelve  thousand  persons  at  midnight  were  assem- 
bled to  add  their  tribute  to  the  departed  President,  Minute 
guns  were  fired,  bells  were  tolled,  and  a  band  played  a  funeral 
dirge.  Tlie  train  moved  beneath  an  arch,  which  spanned  the 
track.  It  was  constructed  of  immense  timbers,  decked  with  mot- 
toes and  a  profusion  of  evergreens,  and  surmounted  by  a  figure 
of  the  Genius  of  America,  in  the  attitude  of  weeping.  The 
hymn,  "  There  is  rest  for  thee  in  Heaven,"  was  sung  by  mixed 
voices  as  the  train  slowly  left. 

At  Wilmington  a  number  of  people  were  drawn  up  in  line 
on  each  side  of  the  track,  with  torches.  Minute  guns  were 
fired.  Over  2,000  persons  were  gathered.  At  Gardner  all  the 
houses  were  draped  and  illuminated. 

At  Towanda  were  a  large  assemblage  of  people.  At  Bloom- 
ington  a  large  arch  bore  the  inscription,  "  Go  to  thy  rest." 

At  Funk's  minute  guns  were  fired,  bells  tolled,  and  singing 
by  a  choir  of  ladies  contributed  with  mournful  efiect  to  the 
occasion. 

At  Atlanta  the  usual  badges  and  drapery  of  sorrow  were 
displayed.  Thousands  assembled,  and  minute  guns  were  fired. 
The  interest  there,  as  at  all  other  stations,  was  intense. 


219 

At  Lincoln,  (named  after  Abraham  Lincoln,)  the  depot  was 
handsomely  draped.  Ladies,  dressed  in  white  and  black,  were 
singing.  The  train  passed  under  a  handsomely  constructed 
arch,  on  each  side  of  which  was  a  picture  of  the  deceased  Presi- 
dent, with  the  motto,  "  With  malice  to  none;  with  charity  for 
all." 

At  Elkhart  men  stood  with  uncovered  heads,  and  the  ladies 
waved  flags.  The  depot  was  handsomely  draped.  They  passed 
under  another  arch  with  flags,  mourning  drapery,  and  ever- 
greens. 

At  Williamsville  the  houses  were  draped,  and  there  were 
many  little  flags  and  portraits.  The  train  passed  a  beautiful 
arch,  with  the  inscription,  "  He  has  fulfilled  his  mission." 

FUNERAL    CEREMONIES   AND   BURIAL   AT   SPRINGFIELD. 

The  mortal  remains  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  sixteenth  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States,  arrived  in  Springfield,  the  capital 
of  Illinois,  on  Wednesday  morning,  the  3d  of  May,  1865.  On 
leaving,  four  years  and  three  months  previous,  to  assume  the 
solemn  responsibilities  of  the  Presidency,  he  said  to  his  friends 
gathered  around  him  at  the  moment  of  his  departure : 

One  who  has  never  been  placed  in  a  like  position  cannot  understand  my 
feelings  at  this  hour,  nor  the  oppressive  sadness  I  feel  at  this  parting.  For 
more  than  twenty-five  years  I  have  lived  among  you,  and  during  that  time  I 
have  received  nothing  but  kindness  at  your  hands.  Here  the  most  cherished 
ties  of  earth  were  assumed.  Here  my  children  were  born,  and  here  one  of 
them  lies  buried.  To  you,  my  friends,  I  owe  all  that  I  have,  all  that  I  am. 
All  the  strange,  checkered  past  seems  to  crowd  now  upon  my  mind.  To-day  I 
must  leave  you.  I  go  to  assume  a  task  more  difficult  than  that  which  devolved 
upon  Washington.  Unless  the  great  God  who  assisted  him  shall  be  with  me,  I 
cannot  prevail ;  but  if  the  same  Omniscient  mind  and  the  same  Almighty  arm 
that  directed  and  protected  him  shall  guide  and  support  me,  I  shall  not  fail ;  I 
shall  succeed.  Let  us  pray  that  the  God  of  our  fathers  may  not  forsake  us 
now.  To  Him  I  commend  you  all.  Permit  me  to  ask  that,  with  equal  sincer- 
ity and  faith,  you  will  invoke  His  wisdom  and  guidance  for  me.  With  these 
few  words  I  must  leave  you ;  for  how  long  I  know  not.  Friends,  one  and  all, 
I  must  now  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell. 

President  Lincoln,  having  fulfilled  his  great  mission  in  the 
salvation  of  his  country,  and  in  giving  freedom  to  four  millions 
of  immortal  beings,  and  having  passed  through,  as  the  ruler  of 


220 

a  great  nation,  the  most  eventful  scenes  in  human  history,  was 
returned,  all  that  was  mortal  of  him,  to  his  neighbors  and 
friends,  to  receive  the  last  mournful  funeral  honors.  It  was 
beautifully  appropriate  that  his  dust  should  sleep  in  the  spot 
he  loved  so  well,  and  among  those  with  whom  he  had  lived  so 
long,  and  to  whom  the  sacred  associations  of  friendship  were 
so  strong  and  precious.  Never  did  a  conqueror,  in  the  hour  of 
his  proudest  triumph,  receive  such  proof  of  the  devotion  of  a 
nation,  as  that  which  was  accorded  to  the  remains  of  the  mar- 
tyred President  on  their  way  to  be  deposited  in  their  last  rest- 
ing place. 

If  the  feelings  of  sorrow  on  the  part  of  the  people  have  been 
deep  and  real  elsewhere,  they  were  even  more  so  in  the  late 
President's  State  and  home.  Here  his  virtues  were  appreci- 
ated, and  the  struggles  by  which  he  so  worthily  rose  to  such 
distinction,  as  well  as  the  difficulties  with  which  he  had  to  con- 
tend through  four  years  of  the  most  stupendous  war,  were  fully 
understood.  Here  were  those  who  never  lost  faith  in  the  pilot 
at  the  helm,  even  when  the  storm  of  war  beat  most  violently 
about  the  "  Ship  of  State."  Here  he  always  received  sympa- 
thy and  encouragement  from  those  who  knew  him  best.  Thou- 
sands who  loved  the  man  for  his  virtues,  and  the  cause  of  which 
he  was  the  noble  champion,  wept  at  the  ruin  which  the  assassin 
had  wrought. 

These  affectionate  and  mutual  attachments  between  the  late 
President  and  his  friends  at  home  found  a  fitting  expression  in 
the  following  touching  and  beautiful  poem,  written  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Allen,  of  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  for  the  reception  and 
burial  of  the  remains  at  Springfield.  It  is  entitled,  "  Spring- 
field's Welcome  to  Lincoln  :" 


Lincoln  !  thy  Country's  Father,  hail ! 
We  bid  thee  welcome,  but  bewail : 
Welcome  unto  thy  chosen  home ; 
Triumphant,  glorious,  dost  thou  come. 

Before  the  rebels  struck  the  blow 
That  laid  thee  in  a  moment  low, 
God  gave  thy  wish :  it  was  to  see 
OoB  Union  safe,  our  country  free. 


221 

A  country  where  the  Gospel  truth 
.  Shall  reach  the  hearts  of  age  and  youth, 

And  move  unchain'd  in  majesty, 
A  model  land  of  liberty  ! 

"When  Jacob's  bones,  from  Egypt  borne, 
Eegain'd  their  home,  the  people  mouro. 
Great  mourning  then  at  Ephron's  cave, 
Both  Abraham's  and  Isaac's  grave. 

Far  greater  is  the  mourning  now ; 
Our  land  one  emblem  wide  of  woe; 
And  where  thy  cofSn  car  appears. 
Do  not  the  people  throng  in  tears  ? 

Thy  triumph  of  a  thousand  miles. 
Like  eastern  conqueror  with  his  spoils— 
A  million  hearts  thy  captives  led, 
All  weeping  for  their  chieftain  dead. 

Thy  chariot,  moved  with  eagle's  speed, 
Without  the  aid  of  prancmg  steed, 
Has  brought  thee  to  thy  destined  tomb  ; 
Springfield,  thy  home,  will  give  thee  room. 

Lincoln,  the  martyr,  welcome  home ! 
What  lessons  blossom  on  thy  tomb ! 
In  God's  pure  truth  and  law  delight ; 
With  firm,  unwavering  soul  do  right. 

Be  condescending,  kind,  and  just; 
In  God's  wise  counsels  put  thy  trust ; 
Let  no  proud  soul  e'er  dare  rebel. 
Moved  by  vile  passions  sprung  from  hell. 

Come,  sleep  with  us  in  sweet  repose 
Till  we,  as  Christ  from  death  arose, 
Shall  in  His  glorious  image  rise 
To  dwell  with  Him  beyond  the  skies. 

Amid  the  profound  silence  and  solemnity  of  tens  of  thousands 
of  people,  the  funeral  train  of  nine  cars,  draped  in  mourning, 
arrived,  and  the  remains  were  conveyed  to  an  elegant  hearse, 
covered  -with  emblems  of  grief,  to  the  Capitol,  where  they  were 
laid  in  state. 

The  remains  of  President  Lincoln  were  received  by  the  com- 
mittee of  reception,  and  the  procession  formed  in  the  following 
order:  Brigadier  General   Cooke  and  staff,   military   escort, 


222 

Major  General  Hooker  and  staff,  guard  of  honor,  relatives  and 
friends  in  carriages;  the  Illinois  delegation  from  Wasliington; 
Senators  and  Representatives  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  including  their  Sergeant-at-Arms  and  Speaker  Colfax; 
Illinois  State  Legislature;  Governors  of  the  different  States; 
delegations  from  Kentucky,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Missouri,  and 
Kansas;  Chicago  Committee  of  Reception,  Judges  of  different 
courts,  clergy,  officers  of  the  army  and  navy,  firemen,  citizens 
generally,  colored  citizens,  &c.,  and  marched  with  slow  and 
solemn  tread  to  the  State  House. 

On  arriving  at  the  Hall  of  Representatives,  the  coffin  was 
placed  upon  the  catafalque,  resting  on  the  dais  underneath  the 
canopy,  and  opened  by  the  embalmer;  after  which  the  guard  of 
honor  took  their  stations  around  the  remains.  The  coffin, 
when  opened,  revealed  the  marked  and  well-known  features  of 
the  noble  dead,  which  "  wore  a  calm  expression,"  and  had  it 
not  been  for  a  slight  discoloration  of  the  face  it  would  have 
appeared  as  though  the  martyr  had  "  fallen  into  a  quiet  sleep." 

Tlie  scene  inside  the  Hall  was  most  solemn  and  impressive; 
the  elegance  and  appropriateness  of  the  decoration,  the  wreaths 
of  evergreens  that  encircled  the  columns,  the  portraits  that 
hung  upon  the  walls,  the  rich  catafalque  underneath  a  splendid 
canopy,  the  silent  dead,  the  officers  and  guards,  made  up  a  sad 
picture. 

The  coffin  was  placed  on  a  platform  approached  by  steps.  It 
was  surrounded  by  evergreens  and  flowers.  The  walls  were 
adorned  by  the  following  inscriptions:  "  Sooner  than  surrender 
this  principle,  I  would  be  assassinated  on  this  spot,"  "  Wash- 
ington, the  Father;  Lincoln,  the  Saviour." 

The  buildings  around  the  public  square,  and  a  large  majority 
of  the  private  residences  in  the  city,  were  beautifully  draped, 
manifesting  the  sorrow  of  the  people  at  the  tragic  death  of 
him  whose  remains  were  lying  in  state  at  the  Capitol. 

The  emblems  of  mourning  everywhere  displayed,  the  solemn 
strains  of  martial  music,  the  slow  and  measured  tread,  the  sad 
countenances  of  the  people,  all  told  of  the  grief  which  touched 
all  hearts.  Illinois  received  a  murdered  son  again  to  her  Itosom, 
no  less  loving  than  when  she  sent  him  forth  to  the  most  dis- 
tinguished honor. 


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223 

During  Wednesday,  it  was  estimated  that  seventy-five  thou- 
sand persons,  old  and  young,  passed  into  the  hall  to  view  the 
remains,  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  visitors  were  sup- 
posed to  be  present. 

THE   BURIAL. 

The  interment  took  place  on  Thursday,  the  4th  of  May,  and  a 
procession,  the  largest  and  most  imposing  ever  witnessed  at 
the  West,  followed  the  remains  from  the  Capitol  to  Oak  Ridge 
Cemetery. 

General  Hooker  was  Marshal-in- Chief,  and  while  he  was 
arranging  the  parts  of  the  procession,  a  choir  of  three  hundred 
voices  chanted  magnificently  the  grand  old  Pleyel's  hymn,  and 
as  the  last  strains  died  away,  the  dense  mass  of  humanity  sud- 
denly crystalized  into  a  mournful  funeral  train,  which,  with  sad 
step,  left  the  city,  passed  over  the  gently  undulating  suburbs, 
across  the  beautiful  meadows,  to  the  cemetery. 

The  singing  of  a  choir  of  full-chested  vocalists  as  the  corpse 
was  borne  from  the  State  House  was  grand  and  overwhelming. 
Slowly  amid  tears  and  sorrow  moved  the  grand  line.  There 
were  double  and  single  starred  generals  who  had  won  distinc- 
tion on  many  hotly  fought  fields.  There  was  a  long  line  of 
eminent  gentlemen  of  the  bench  and  the  bar,  and  of  the  rev- 
erend clergy  a  great  many  of  the  chief  ministers  of  the  West. 

The  pall-bearers  were  the  Hon.  Jesse  K.  Dubois,  Judge  S. 
T.  Logan,  the  Hon.  G-.  P.  Koerner  and  James  S.  Lamb,  S.  H. 
Treat,  John  Williams,  Erastus  Wright,  J.  N.  Brown,  Jacob 
Brown,  C.  W.  Mathews,  Elijah  Hes,  and  J.  T.  Stuart,  Esqs.,  all 
old  neighbors  of  the  President.  These  walked  by  the  side  of 
the  hearse.  The  various  escorts  and  delegations  followed  in 
their  order. 

Thus  were  the  remains  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  late  Presi- 
dent, borne  to  his  burial  place  by  his  neighbors  and  friends, 
and  the  vast  concourse  of  mourners  from  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. 

Oak  Ridge  Cemetery,  if  it  has  not  the  grandeur  of  Green- 
wood or  Mount  Auburn,  is  yet  a  beautiful  resting  place  for  the 
dead,  covering  an  area  of  thirty-eight  acres.     Nature  made  the 


224 

spot  beautiful,  and  the  artificial  landscaping  has  been  made 
with  much  taste  and  skill,  in  conformity  with  the  natural  out- 
lines. The  original  growth  of  small  oaks  still  stands,  and  there 
are  a  score  of  towering  elms  along  the  banks  of  the  brook 
which  flows  across  the  southern  side.  This  stream  winds  sinu- 
ously at  the  bottom  of  a  deep  cut  or  ravine,  which  is  inter- 
sected on  either  side  by  smaller  ravines. 

The  vault  where  the  President  has  been  laid  is  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  stream,  forty  rods  from  the  entrance.  It  is  built 
of  the  hard,  white  limestone  found  in  this  vicinity,  and  the  door 
is  an  immense  slab  of  the  same,  swung  on  massive  hinges,  be- 
hind which  is  a  heavy  one  of  grated  iron,  through  which  may  be 
viewed  the  coffin  within  the  tomb  The  road  from  the  city  to 
the  cemetery  is  lined  nearly  all  the  distance  by  residences, 
surrounded  by  gardens  and  orchards,  though  a  part  of  the  way, 
on  one  side,  it  skirts  the  woodland. 

On  the  high  bank  above  the  vault  there  were  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  people,  and  on  the  hillside  across  the  stream  from 
the  vault  there  were  as  many  more,  and  then  the  narrow  valley 
was  overflown  with  "  a  sea  of  upturned  faces."  On  the  left  of 
the  vault  sat  the  choir  of  two  hundred  voices,  and  on  the  right 
was  the  platform,  upon  which  sat  the  clergy  who  were  to  con- 
duct the  exercises.  Facing  the  vault  were  the  Congressional 
and  Illinois  Committees,  Governors  of  States  and  other  dele- 
gations, and  nearer  still  the  pall-bearers  and  family  friends,  and 
on  either  side  of  the  door  the  relatives.  The  appearance  of 
the  audience  seated  in  the  God  built  amphitheatre  was  most 
imposing.  The  people  had  come  to  bury  their  chief!  They  had 
come  to  lay  away  their  Father  I  "Within  the  vault,  ranged  on 
either  side  of  the  bier,  stood  the  guard  of  honor,  one  or  more 
of  whom  had  stood  at  the  head  of  the  coflfin  every  minute  since 
it  left  Washington.  The  roof  and  sides  of  the  vault  had  been 
covered  with  black  cloth.  The  stone  floor  was  strewn  with 
evergreen.  The  choicest  ofi'erings  from  a  hundred  flower-gardens 
covered  the  evergreen,  and  other  flowers,  wrought  into  symbols 
of  religion  and  tenderness,  covered  the  margins  of  the  bier. 
The  coffin,  in  a  receptacle  of  plain  black  walnut  and  resting 
in  the  centre  of  its  black  bier,  was  also  hidden  in  the  beauty  of 
flowers. 


225 


EELIGIOUS   SERVICES   AT   THE  TOMB. 

The  services  began  with  prayer  and  music.     After  the  choir 
had  sung  the  hymn — 

Unveil  thy  bosom,  faithful  tomb, 

Take  this  new  treasure  to  thy  trust,  &c., 

the  Eev.  Albert  Hale,  who  had  been  pastor  of  a  Presby- 
terian church  at  Springfield  for  more  than  twenty-five  years, 
and  a  warm  personal  friend  of  the  late  President,  ofi"ered  the 
following  prayer.  It  is  more  a  thanksgiving  than  a  lamenta- 
tion, and  the  voice  of  the  aged  preacher  was  clioked  with  tears, 
and  many  who  had  not  wept  before  melted  into  tears  : 

PRAYER. 

Father  of  Heaven,  we  acknowledge  Thee  as  the  author  of  our  being  and  the 
giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift.  Thou  givest  life,  and  Thou  takest  it  away. 
The  lives  of  men  and  the  lives  of  nations  are  in  Thy  hands  as  the  drop  of  a 
bucket. 

Father  in  Heaven,  we  bow  down  before  Thee  to-day,  believing  in  Thy  pres- 
ence and  asking  that  with  submissive  hearts  we  may  acknowledge  Thee  in  tha 
serious  thoughts  that  press  upon  the  millions  to-day.  Father  in  Heaven,  we 
thank  Thee  that  Thou  didst  give  to  this  nation  Thy  servant,  so  mysteriously 
and  maliciously  taken  from  us.  We  acknowledge  Thy  hand  in  all  these  provi- 
dences which  Thou  hast  suffered  from  time  to  time  to  unfold  themselves,  by 
which  we  have  been  blessed  with  his  private  and  public  influence.  We  thank 
Thee,  Father  of  Heaven,  that  Thou  didst  give  him  to  this  people,  and  that  he 
was  raised  to  a  position  of  power  and  authority,  and  that  through  him  Thou 
hast  led  them  through  storm  and  strife  to  the  present  hopeful  condition  of  our 
public  affairs. 

And  now.  Father  in  Heaven,  we  bow  to  that  stroke  by  which,  suddenly,  and 
contrary  to  our  desires  and  expectations,  he  is  taken  from  the  high  place  where 
he  stood,  and  we  are  now  called  upon  to  deposit  his  remains  in  the  grave. 

Father  in  Heaven,  we  mourn  before  Thee ;  our  hearts  bow  in  grief  and  in 
sorrow  unto  Thy  stroke,  but  he  helped  us  to  say,  "  It  is  the  Lord,  let  him  do 
what  seemeth  good  for  us."  And  we  do  entreat  Thee,  Father  in  Heaven,  to  re- 
member especially  the  bereaved  widow  and  family.  We  pray  that  in  this  hour 
of  their  trial  God  will  give  to  them  those  blessings  that  they  need,  and  so  open 
the  fountains  of  Divine  consolation  that  they  in  their  grief  shall  make  this 
event  not  only  a  sorrow,  but,  under  God,  the  opening  day  of  numberless  bless- 
ings. To  Thee  we  commit  them  and  all  personal  relatives  who  mourn  in  con- 
sequence of  this  distressing  event,  and,  Father  in  Heaven,  to  Thee  we  commit 
15 


226 

the  people  of  the  city  and  of  the  State  in  which  ho  has  grown  up,  whose  affec- 
tion he  holds  to-day  in  his  death,  stronger  than  in  the  most  powerful  moment 
of  his  life. 

Merciful  God,  bless  us,  and,  we  pray  Thee,  help  us  to  cherish  the  memory  of 
his  life,  and  the  worth  of  the  high  example  he  has  shown  us.  Sanctify  the 
event  to  all  in  public  offices ;  may  they  learn  wisdom  from  that  example,  and 
study  to  follow  in  the  steps  of  him  whom  Thou  hast  taken  away.  We  do  pray 
and  beseech  Thee  to  grant  that  the  high  purpose  for  which  he  lived,  and  in 
which,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  he  had  bo  far  succeeded,  may  be  carried  to  a 
completion,  and  the  time  soon  come  when  the  good  in  heaven  and  on  earth 
shall  unite  in  shouts  of  joy  and  praise  to  the  everlasting  God.  And,  0  God, 
we  thank  Thee  for  that  other  example  which  he  set  us,  in  a  steady  adherence 
to  truth,  a  love  of  freedom,  and  opposition  to  wrong,  and  injustice,  and  slavery; 
and  we  pray  that  God  will  grant  that  the  policy  of  our  Government  touching 
these  great  issues  may  be  successfully  carried  through,  when  not  a  slave  shall 
clank  his  shackles  in  the  land,  and  not  a  soul  be  found  that  will  not  rejoice 
in  universal  freedom,  in  righteousness  established,  in  pure  religion  revived, 
in  Christ  manifested  in  His  glory  and  reigning  with  power  in  the  hearts  of 
this  nation. 

We  mourn  in  sorrow  to-day,  yet  we  would  rejoice  in  that  "  nor  life,  nor 
death,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to  come  "  can  check  this  consummation. 
Give  us  grace,  we  pray  Thee,  to  plead  for  thy  blessing  upon  all  men  through- 
out the  land,  and  for  the  dawning  of  that  day  in  which  righteousness  and 
truth,  and  freedom,  and  pure  religion,  and  humanity,  shall  reign  triumphant. 

O  God,  our  Father,  give  grace  and  wisdom  to  him  who  so  mysteriously  is 
called  to  occupy  the  chair  of  state,  from  which,  by  the  hand  of  malice,  he 
whom  the  country  and  the  nation  mourn  has  been  taken  away.  Give  unto 
him  humility;  give  him  wisdom  to  direct  his  steps;  give  him  a  love  of  right- 
eousness, and  help  him  to  cherish  the  freedom  of  the  people,  while  he  sits  at  the 
helm  of  the  nation ;  and  may  God  give  him,  and  all  associated  with  him,  grace 
to  perceive  the  right,  and  to  bear  the  sword  of  justice  so  as  to  serve  the  na- 
tion's welfare,  and  to  redound  to  the  honor  of  truth  and  the  honor  of  God ; 
and  may  they  conduct  themselves  patiently  and  courageously  to  the  end. 

Our  Father  in  heaven,  smile,  we  pray  Thee,  upon  the  millions  that  have  come 
eut  of  bondage.  Remember  them,  we  pray  Thee,  our  brethren,  dear  to  him  who 
is  taken  from  us.  May  God  grant  that  they  may  be  able  to  act  worthily  of  the 
privileges  which  Providence  opens  before  them,  and  may  all  the  people  unite 
their  prayers,  their  patience,  their  self-denial,  so  that  these  may  come  up  and 
take  their  j)lace  in  the  nation  as  citizens,  rejoicing  in  new-born  privileges,  and 
the  rights  which  God  gave,  and  which  man  cannot  rightfully  take  away. 

Father  in  heaven,  we  ask  Thy  blessing  upon  all  those  who  are  endeavoring, 
to-day,  to  secure  the  public  interest  against  the  hands  of  an  assassin,  and  to 
prevent  the  murder  of  those  in  high  places.  0  God,  let  Thy  justice.  Thy 
righteousness,  and  power,  speedily  rid  the  nation  of  those  lusts  out  of  which 
all  these  evils  arise,  and  the  Union  rise  up  from  out  this  great  trial,  and  be- 
come a  light  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  in  all  future  time. 

Father  in  heaven.  Thou  art  just  and  righteous  in  all  thy  ways,  holy  in  all 


227 

Thy  doings;  we  are  sinful  and  unworthy  of  our  privileges,  but  thou  hast  not 
dealt  with  us  after  our  sins,  nor  rewarded  us  according  to  our  iniquities.  Hear 
ufl  and  aid  us  in  the  services  still  to  be  performed  here ;  and  accept  us  through 
Christ  our  Redeemer,  to  whom,  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  be  glory 
everlasting.    Amen. 

After  the  prayer  the  choir  sang  the  following  dirge,  com- 
posed for  the  occasion.  Music  by  George  F.  Root,  words  by 
L.  M.  Dawes.    It  was  sung  with  much  feeling  and  effect : 

All  our  land  is  draped  in  mourning, 

Hearts  are  bowed  and  strong  men  weep  ; 
For  our  loved,  our  noble  leader 

Sleeps  his  last,  his  dreamless  sleep — 
Gone  for  ever,  gone  for  ever, 

Fallen  by  a  traitor's  hand, 
Though  preserved  his  dearest  treasure, 

Our  redeem'd,  beloved  land. 
Rest  in  peace. 

Through  our  night  of  bloody  struggle 

Ever  dauntless,  firm,  and  true, 
Bravely,  gently,  forth  he  led  us. 

Till  the  morn  burst  on  our  view^ 
Till  he  saw  the  day  of  triumph. 

Saw  the  field  our  heroes  won ; 
Then  his  honor'd  life  was  ended, 

Then  his  glorious  work  was  done. 
Rest  in  peace. 

When  from  mountain,  hill,  and  valley, 

To  their  homes  our  brave  boys  come, 
When  with  welcome  notes  we  greet  them. 

Song,  and  cheer,  and  pealing  drum ; 
When  we  miss  our  lov'd  ones  fallen. 

When  to  weep  we  turn  aside. 
Then  for  him  our  tears  shall  mingle. 

He  has  suffered — he  has  died. 
Rest  in  peace. 

Honor'd  leader,  long  and  fondly 

Shall  thy  mem'ry  cherished  be ; 
Hearts  shall  bless  thee  for  their  freedom, 

Hearts  unborn  shall  sigh  for  thee ; 
He  who  gave  thee  might  and  wisdom. 

Gave  thy  spirit  sweet  release ; 
Farewell  father,  friend  and  guardian. 

Rest  forever,  rest  in  peace. 
Rest  in  peace. 


228 

The  reading  of  the  Scriptures  was  by  Rev.  N.  W.  Miner. 
His  selections  were  from  different  parts  of  the  sacred  oracles, 
blending  the  sad  and  the  triumphant — the  grave  and  the  resur- 
rection.   Then  came  a  chorus — 

To  Thee,  0  Lord,  Ac. 

Rev.  Mr.  Hubbard  read  the  last  inaugural  of  President  Lin- 
coln, delivered  two  short  months  before. 

FUNEEAL   ORATION   BY  BISHOP    SIMPSON. 

Bishop  Simpson,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  was 
invited  by  the  citizens  of  Springfield  to  deliver  the  funeral 
address.  His  eminent  piety,  his  outspoken  and  earnest  loyalty 
in  all  his  public  ministrations,  his  commanding  eloquence  as  a 
pulpit  orator,  his  eminence  in  the  Christian  Church,  and  his 
long  and  intimate  friendship  with  the  late  President,  who 
always  attended  upon  the  Bishop's  preaching  when  he  visited 
Washington,  made  it  peculiarly  appropriate  that  he  should 
speak  at  the  tomb  of  the  late  President,  upon  the  solemn  lessons 
of  the  providential  event.  Tears  and  hearty  and  vocal  amen 
responses  testified  to  the  pathos  and  power  of  the  oration.  He 
said : 

Fellow-citizens  of  Illinois,  and  of  many  parts  of  our  entire  Union: 

Near  the  capital  of  this  large  and  growing  State  of  Illinois,  in  the  midst  of 
this  beautiful  grove,  and  at  the  open  mouth  of  the  vault  which  has  just  received 
the  remains  of  our  fallen  chieftain,  we  gather  to  pay  a  tribute  of  respect  and 
to  drop  the  tears  of  sorrow  around  the  ashes  of  the  mighty  dead.  A  little 
more  than  four  years  ago  he  left  his  plain  and  quiet  home  in  yonder  city,  receiv- 
ing the  parting  words  of  the  concourse  of  friends  who  in  the  midst  of  the  drop- 
ping of  the  gentle  shower  gathered  around  him.  He  spoke  of  the  pain  of  part- 
ing from  the  place  where  he  had  lived  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  where  his 
children  had  been  born  and  his  home  had  been  rendered  pleasant  by  friendly 
associations,  and,  as  he  left,  he  made  an  earnest  request,  in  the  hearing  of  aome 
who  are  present  at  this  hour,  that,  as  he  was  about  to  enter  upon  responsibili- 
ties which  he  believed  to  be  greater  than  any  which  had  fallen  upon  any  man 
since  the  days  of  Washington,  the  people  would  offer  up  prayers  that  God 
would  aid  and  sustain  him  in  the  work  which  they  had  given  him  to  do.  Hia 
company  loft  your  quiet  city,  but,  as  it  went,  snares  were  in  waiting  for  the 
thief  magistrate.  Scarcely  did  he  escape  the  dangers  of  the  way  or  the  hands 
of  the  assassin,  as  he  neared  Washington ;  and  I  believe  he  escaped  only  through 


229 

the  vigUance  of  officers  and  the  prayers  of  hia  people,  so  that  the  blow  was 
Ruspended  for  more  than  four  years,  which  was  at  last  permitted,  through  the 
providence  of  God,  to  fall. 

How  different  the  occasion  which  witnessed  his  departure  from  that  which 
witnessed  his  return.  Doubtless  you  expected  to  take  him  by  the  hand,  and  to 
feel  the  warm  grasp  which  you  had  felt  in  other  days,  and  to  see  the  tall  form 
walking  among  you  which  you  had  delighted  to  honor  in  years  past.  But  he 
was  never  permitted  to  come  until  he  came  with  lips  mute  and  silent,  the 
frame  encoffined,  and  a  weeping  nation  following  as  his  mourners.  Such  a 
scene  as  his  return  to  you  was  never  witnessed.  Among  the  events  of  history 
there  have  been  great  processions  of  mourners.  There  was  one  for  the  patriarch 
Jacob,  which  went  up  from  Egypt,  and  the  Egyptians  wondered  at  the  evi- 
dences of  reverence  and  filial  affection  which  came  from  the  hearts  of  the 
Israelites.  There  was  mourning  when  Moses  fell  upon  the  heights  of  Pisgah 
and  was  hid  from  human  view.  There  have  been  mournings  in  the  kingdoms 
of  the  earth  when  kings  and  princes  have  fallen,  but  never  was  there,  in  the 
history  of  man,  such  mourning  as  that  which  has  accompanied  this  funeral  pro- 
cession, and  has  gathered  around  the  mortal  remains  of  him  who  was  our  loved 
one,  and  who  now  sleeps  among  us.  If  we  glance  a*  the  procession  which 
followed  him,  we  see  how  the  nation  stood  aghast.  Tears  filled  the  eyes  of 
manly,  sunburnt  faces.  Strong  men,  as  they  clasped  the  hands  of  their  friends, 
were  unable  to  find  vent  for  their  grief  in  words.  Women  and  little  children 
caught  up  the  tidings  as  they  ran  through  the  land,  and  were  melted  into  tears. 
The  nation  stood  still.  Men  left  their  plows  in  the  fields  and  asked  what  the 
end  should  be.  The  hum  of  manufactories  ceased,  and  the  sound  of  the  ham- 
mer was  not  heard.  Busy  merchants  closed  their  doors,  and  in  the  exchange 
gold  passed  no  more  from  hand  to  hand.  Though  three  weeks  have  elapsed,  the 
nation  has  scarcely  breathed  easily  yet.  A  mournful  silence  is  abroad  upon  the 
land;  nor  is  this  mourning  confined  to  any  class  or  to  any  district  of  country. 
Men  of  all  political  parties,  and  of  all  religious  creeds,  have  united  in  paying 
this  mournful  tribute.  The  archbishop  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  New 
York  and  a  Protestant  minister  walked  side  by  side  in  the  sad  procession,  and 
a  Jewish  rabbi  performed  a  part  of  the  solemn  services. 

Here  are  gathered  around  his  tomb  the  representatives  of  the  army  and  navy, 
senators,  judges,  governors,  and  officers  of  all  the  branches  of  the  government. 
Here,  too,  are  members  of  civic  processions,  with  men  and  women  from  the 
humblest  as  well  as  the  highest  occupations.  Here  and  there,  too,  are  tears,  as 
sincere  and  warm  as  any  that  drop,  which  come  from  the  eyes  of  those  whose 
kindred  and  whose  race  have  been  freed  from  their  chains  by  him  whom  they 
mourn  as  their  deliverer.  More  persons  have  gazed  on  the  face  of  the  departed 
than  ever  looked  upon  the  face  of  any  other  departed  man.  More  races  have 
looked  on  the  procession  for  sixteen  hundred  miles  or  more — by  night  and  by 
day — by  sunlight,  dawn,  twilight,  and  by  torchlight,  than  ever  before  watched 
the  progress  of  a  procession. 

We  ask  why  this  wonderful  mourning — this  great  procession?  I  answer, 
first,  a  part  of  the  interest  has  arisen  from  the  times  in  which  we  live,  and  in 
which  he  that  had  fallen  was  a  principal  actor.     It  is  a  principle  of  our  nature 


230 

that  feelings  once  excited  turn  readily  from  the  ohject  by  which  thoy  aro 
excited  to  some  other  object  which  may  for  the  time  being  take  possession  of 
the  mind.  Another  principle  is,  the  deepest  affections  of  our  hearts  gather 
around  some  human  form  in  which  are  incarnated  the  living  thoughts  and 
ideas  of  the  passing  age.  If  we  look  then  at  the  times,  we  see  an  age  of  excite- 
ment. For  four  years  the  popular  heart  has  been  stirred  to  its  inmost  depth. 
War  had  come  upon  us,  dividing  families,  separating  nearest  and  dearest  friends 
— a  war  the  extent  and  magnitude  of  which  no  one  could  estimate — a  war  in 
which  the  blood  of  brethren  was  shed  by  a  brother's  hand.  A  call  for  soldiers 
was  made  by  this  voice  now  hushed,  and  all  over  the  land,  from  hill  and  moun- 
tain, from  plain  to  valley,  there  sprang  up  thousands  of  bold  hearts,  ready  to 
go  forth  and  save  our  national  Union.  This  feeling  of  excitement  was  trans- 
ferred next  into  a  feeling  of  deep  grief  because  of  the  dangers  in  which  our 
country  was  placed.  Many  said,  "Is  it  possible  to  save  our  nation?"  Some 
in  our  country,  and  nearly  all  the  leading  men  in  other  countries,  declared  it 
to  be  impossible  to  maintain  the  Union ;  and  many  an  honest  and  patriotic  heart 
was  deeply  pained  with  apprehensions  of  common  ruin;  and  many,  in  grief. and 
almo.st  in  despair,  anxiously  inquired,  What  shall  the  end  of  these  things  be  ? 
In  addition  to  this,  wives  had  given  their  husbands,  mothers  their  sons,  the 
pride  and  joy  of  their  hearts.  They  saw  them  put  on  the  uniform,  they  saw 
them  take  the  martial  step,  and  they  tried  to  hide  their  deep  feeling  of  sadness. 
Many  dear  ones  slept  upon  the  battle-field  never  to  return  again,  and  there  was 
mourning  in  every  mansion  and  in  every  cabin  in  our  broad  land.  Then  came 
a  feeling  of  deeper  sadness  as  the  story  came  of  prisoners  tortured  to  death  or 
starved  through  the  mandates  of  those  who  are  called  the  representatives  of 
the  chivalrj',  and  who  claimed  to  be  the  honorable  ones  of  the  earth  ;  and  as  we 
read  the  stories  of  frames  attenuated  and  reduced  to  mere  skeletons,  our  grief 
turned  partly  into  horror  and  partly  into  a  cry  for  vengeance. 

Then  this  feeling  was  changed  to  one  of  joy.  There  came  signs  of  the  end  of 
this  rebellion.  We  followed  the  career  of  our  glorious  generals.  We  saw  our 
army,  under  the  command  of  the  brave  officer  who  is  guiding  this  procession, 
climb  up  the  bights  of  Lookout  mountain  and  drive  the  rebels  from  their  strong- 
holds. Another  brave  general  swept  through  Georgia,  South  and  North  Carolina, 
and  drove  the  combined  armies  of  the  rebels  before  him,  while  the  honored 
Lieutenant  General  held  Lee  and  his  hosts  in  a  death  grasp. 

Then  the  tidings  came  that  Richmond  was  evacuated  and  that  Lee  had  sur- 
rendered. The  bells  rang  merrily  all  over  the  land.  The  booming  of  cannon 
was  heard;  illuminations  and  torch-light  processions  manifested  the  general  joy, 
and  families  were  looking  for  the  speedy  return  of  their  loved  ones  from  the 
field  of  battle.  Just  in  the  midst  of  this  wildest  joy,  in  one  hour — naj',  in  one 
moment — the  tidings  thrilled  tliroughout  the  land  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 
best  of  Presidents,  had  perished  by  the  hands  of  an  assassin ;  and  then  all  the 
feelings  which  had  been  gathering  for  four  years,  in  forms  of  excitement,  grief, 
horror,  and  joy,  turned  into  one  wail  of  woe — a  sadness  inexpressible — an 
anguish  unutterable.  But  it  is  not  the  times  merely  which  caused  this  mourn- 
ing. The  mode  of  his  death  must  be  taken  into  the  account.  Had  he  died  on  a 
bed  of  illness,  with  kind  friends  around  him;  had  the  sweat  of  death  been 


231 

wiped  from  his  brow  by  gentle  hands,  while  he  was  yet  conscious;  could  he 
have  had  power  to  speak  words  of  affection  to  his  stricken  widow,  or  words  of 
counsel  to  us,  like  those  which  we  heard  in  his  parting  inaugural  at  Washington, 
which  shall  now  be  immortal — how  it  would  have  softened  or  assuaged  some- 
thing of  the  grief.  There  might,  at  least,  have  been  preparation  for  the  event. 
But  no  moment  of  warning  was  given  to  him  or  to  us.  He  was  stricken  down, 
too,  when  his  hopes  for  the  end  of  the  rebellion  were  bright,  and  prospects  of  a 
joyous  life  were  before  him.  There  was  a  cabinet  meeting  that  day,  said  to 
have  been  the  most  cheerful  and  happy  of  any  held  since  the  beginning  of  the 
rebellion.  After  this  meeting  he  talked  with  his  friends,  and  spoke  of  the  four 
years  of  tempest,  of  the  storm  being  over,  and  of  the  four  years  of  pleasure 
and  joy  now  awaiting  him,  as  the  weight  of  care  and  anxiety  would  be  taken 
from  his  mind,  and  he  could  have  happy  days  with  his  familj'-  again.  In  the 
midst  of  these  anticipations  he  left  his  house,  never  to  return  alive.  The  eve- 
ning was  Good  Friday,  the  saddest  day  in  the  whole  calendar  for  the  Christian 
Church — henceforth  in  this  country  to  be  made  sadder,  if  possible,  by  the 
memory  of  our  nation's  loss ;  and  so  filled  with  grief  was  every  Christian  heart, 
that  even  all  the  joyous  thought  of  Easter  Sunday  failed  to  remove  the  crush- 
ing sorrow  under  which  the  true  worshipper  bowed  in  the  house  of  God. 

But  the  great  cause  of  this  mourning  is  to  be  found  in  the  man  himself.  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  no  ordinary  man.  I  believe  the  conviction  has  been  growing  on 
the  nation's  mind,  as  it  certainly  has  been  on  my  own,  especially  in  the  last 
years  of  his  administration,  that,  by  the  hand  of  God,  he  was  especially  singled 
out  to  guide  our  government  in  these  troublesome  times,  and  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  hand  of  God  may  be  traced  in  many  of  the  events  connected  with  his  his- 
tory. First,  then,  I  recognize  this  in  the  phj'sical  education  which  he  received, 
and  which  prepared  him  for  enduring  herculean  labors.  In  the  toils  of  his  boy- 
hood and  the  labors  of  his  manhood  God  was  giving  him  an  iron  frame. 
Next  to  this  was  his  identification  with  the  heart  of  the  great  people,  under- 
?t.xnding  their  feelings  because  he  was  one  of  them,  and  connected  v.'ith  them  in 
their  movements  and  life.  His  education  was  simple.  A  few  months  spent  in 
the  school-house  gave  him  the  elements  of  education.  He  read  few  books,  but 
mastered  all  he  read.  Bunyan's  Frogress,  (Esop's  Fables,  and  the  Life  of 
"Washington  were  his  favorites.  In  these  we  recognize  the  works  which  gave 
the  bias  to  his  character,  and  which  partly  molded  his  style.  His  early  life, 
with  its  varied  struggle,  joined  him  indissolubly  to  the  working  masses,  and  no 
elevation  in  society  diminished  his  respect  for  the  sons  of  toil.  He  knew  what 
it  was  to  fell  the  tall  trees  of  the  forest  and  to  stem  the  current  of  the  broad 
Mississippi.  His  home  was  in  the  growing  West,  the  heart  of  the  republic,  and, 
invigorated  by  the  wind  which  swept  over  its  prairies,  he  learned  lessons  of 
self-reliance  which  sustained  him  in  seasons  of  adversity. 

His  genius  was  soon  recognized,  as  true  genius  always  will  be,  and  he  was 
placed  in  the  legislature  of  his  State.  Already  acquainted  with  the  principles 
of  law,  he  devoted  his  thoughts  to  matters  of  public  interest,  and  began  to  be 
looked  on  as  the  coming  statesman.  As  early  as  1839  he  pre.sented  resolution* 
in  the  legislature  asking  for  emancipation  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  wheUj 
with  but  rare  exceptions,  the  whole  popular  mind  of  his  State  was  opposed  to 


232 

Che  measure.  From  that  hour  he  was  a  steady  and  uniform  friend  of  humanity, 
and  was  preparing  for  the  conflict  of  latter  years. 

If  you  ask  me  on  what  mental  characteristic  his  greatness  rested,  I  answer, 
on  a  quick  and  ready  perception  of  facts ;  on  a  memory  unusually  tenacious 
and  retentive ;  and  on  a  logical  turn  of  mind,  which  followed  sternly  and  un- 
waveringly every  link  in  the  chain  of  thought  on  every  subject  which  he  was 
called  to  investigate.  I  think  there  have  been  minds  more  broad  in  their 
character,  more  comprehensive  in  their  scope,  but  I  doubt  if  ever  there  has  been 
a  man  who  could  follow,  step  by  step,  with  more  logical  power,  the  points  which 
he  desired  to  illustrate.  He  gained  this  power  by  the  close  study  of  geometry, 
and  by  a  determination  to  perceive  the  truth  in  all  its  relations  and  simplicity, 
and,  when  found,  to  utter  it. 

It  is  said  of  him  that  in  childhood,  when  he  had  any  difficulty  in  listening  to 
a  conversation  to  ascertain  what  people  meant,  if  he  retired  to  rest  he  could  not 
sleep  till  he  tried  to  understand  the  precise  points  intended,  and,  when  under- 
stood, to  frame  language  to  convey  it  in  a  clearer  manner  to  others.  Who  that 
has  read  his  messages  fails  to  perceive  the  directness  and  the  simplicity  of  his 
style  ?  And  this  very  trait,  which  was  scoffed  at  and  decried  by  opponents,  is 
now  recognized  as  one  of  the  strong  points  of  that  mighty  mind  which  has  so 
powerfully  influenced  the  destiny  of  this  nation,  and  which  shall,  for  ages  to 
come,  influence  the  destiny  of  humanity. 

It  was  not,  however,  chiefly  by  his  mental  faculties  that  he  gained  such  con- 
trol over  mankind.  His  moral  power  gave  him  pre-eminence.  The  convictions 
of  men  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  an  honest  man  led  them  to  yield  to  his 
guidance.  As  has  been  said  of  Cobden,  whom  he  greatly  resembled,  he  made  all 
men  feel  a  sense  of  himself — a  recognition  of  individuality — a  self-relying  power. 
They  saw  in  him  a  man  whom  they  believed  would  do  what  is  right,  regardless 
of  all  consequences.  It  was  this  moral  feeling  which  gave  him  the  greatest 
hold  on  the  people,  and  made  his  utterances  almost  oracular.  When  the  nation 
was  angered  by  the  perfidy  of  foreign  nations  in  allowing  privateers  to  be  fitted 
out,  he  uttered  the  significant  expression,  "  One  war  at  a  time,"  and  it  stilled 
the  national  heart.  When  his  own  friends  were  divided  as  to  what  steps  should 
be  taken  as  to  slavery,  that  simple  utterance,  "  I  will  save  the  Union,  if  I  can, 
with  slavery ;  if  not,  slavery  must  perish,  for  the  Union  must  be  preserved," 
became  the  rallying  word.  Men  felt  the  struggle  was  for  the  Union,  and  all 
other  questions  must  be  subsidiary. 

But,  after  all,  by  the  acts  of  a  man  shall  his  fame  be  perpetuated.  What  are 
his  acts  ?  Much  praise  is  due  to  the  men  who  aided  him.  He  called  able 
councillors  around  him — some  of  whom  have  displayed  the  highest  order  of 
talent  united  with  the  purest  and  most  devoted  patriotism.  He  summoned  able 
generals  into  the  field — men  who  have  borne  the  sword  as  bravely  as  ever  any 
human  arm  has  borne  it.  He  had  the  aid  of  prayerful  and  thoughtful  men 
everywhere.  But,  under  his  own  guiding  hands,  wise  counsels  were  combined 
and  great  movements  conducted. 

Turn  towards  the  different  departments.  We  had  an  unorganized  militia,  a 
mere  skeleton  army ;  yet,  under  his  care,  that  army  has  been  enlarged  into  a 
force  which,  for  skill,  intelligence,  efficiency,  and  bravery,  surpasses  any  which 


233 

the  world  had  ever  seen.  Before  its  veterans  the  fame  of  even  the  renowned 
veterans  of  Napoleon  shall  pale,  [applause,]  and  the  mothers  and  sisters  on 
these  hill-sides,  and  all  over  the  land,  shall  take  to  their  arms  again  braver 
Bons  and  brothers  than  ever  fought  in  European  wars.  The  reason  is  obvious. 
Money,  or  a  desire  for  fame,  collected  those  armies,  or  they  were  rallied  to  sus- 
tain favorite  thrones  or  dynasties ;  but  the  armies  he  called  into  being  fought 
for  liberty,  for  the  Union,  and  for  the  right  of  self-government ;  and  many  of 
them  felt  that  the  battles  they  won  were  for  humanity  everywhere  and  for  all 
time  ;  for  I  believe  that  God  has  not  suffered  this  terrible  rebellion  to  come 
upon  our  land  merely  as  a  chastisement  to  us,  or  as  a  lesson  to  our  age.  There 
are  moments  which  involve  in  themselves  eternities.  There  are  instants 
which  seem  to  contain  germs  which  shall  develop  and  bloom  forever. 
Such  a  moment  came  in  the  tide  of  time  to  our  land,  when  a  question  must 
be  settled  which  affected  all  the  earth.  The  contest  was  for  human  free- 
dom— not  for  this  republic  merely,  not  for  the  Union  simply,  but  to  decide 
whether  the  people,  as  a  people,  in  their  entire  majesty,  were  destined  to  be 
the  government,  or  whether  they  were  to  be  subject  to  tyrants  or  aristocrats, 
or  to  class  rule  of  any  kind.  This  is  the  great  question  for  which  we  have 
been  fighting,  and  its  decision  is  at  hand,  and  the  result  of  the  contest  will 
affect  the  ages  to  come.  If  successful,  republics  will  spread  in  spite  of  mon- 
archs,  all  over  this  earth.     [Exclamations  of  "  Amen,"  "  Thank  God."] 

I  turn  from  the  army  to  the  navy.  What  was  it  when  the  war  commenced  ? 
Now  we  have  our  ships-of-war  at  home  and  abroad,  to  guard  privateers  in  for- 
eign sympathizing  ports,  as  well  as  to  care  for  every  part  of  our  own  coast. 
They  have  taken  forts  that  military  men  said  could  not  be  taken,  and  a  brave 
admiral,  for  the  first  time  in  the  world's  history  lashed  himself  to  the  mast, 
there  to  remain  as  long  as  he  had  a  particle  of  skill  or  strength  to  watch  over 
his  ship,  while  it  engaged  in  the  perilous  contest  of  taking  the  strong  forts  of 
the  rebels. 

Then,  again,  I  turn  to  the  Treasury  Department.  Where  should  the  money 
come  from?  Wise  men  predicted  ruin,  but  our  national  credit  has  been  main- 
tained, and  our  currency  is  safer  to-day  than  it  ever  was  before.  Not  only  so, 
but  through  our  national  bonds,  if  properly  used,  we  shall  have  a  permanent 
basis  for  our  currency,  and  an  investment  so  desirable  for  capitalists  of  other 
nations  that,  under  the  laws  of  trade,  I  believe  the  centre  of  exchange  will 
speedily  be  transferred  from  England  to  the  United  States. 

But  the  great  act  of  the  mighty  chieftain,  on  which  his  fame  shall  rest  long 
after  his  frame  shall  moulder  away,  is  that  of  giving  freedom  to  a  race.  We 
have  all  been  taught  to  revere  the  sacred  characters.  Among  them  Moses 
stands  pre-eminently  high.  He  received  the  law  from  God,  and  his  name  is 
honored  among  the  hosts  of  heaven.  Was  not  his  greatest  act  the  delivering 
of  three  millions  of  his  kindred  out  of  bondage?  Yet  we  may  assert  that 
Abraham  Lincoln,  by  his  proclamation,  liberated  more  enslaved  people  than 
ever  Moses  set  free,  and  those  not  of  his  kindred  or  his  race.  Such  a  power,  or 
such  an  opportunity,  God  has  seldom  given  to  man.  When  other  events  shall  , 
have  been  forgotten  ;  when  this  world  shall  have  become  a  network  of  repub- 
lics; when  everv  throne  shall  be  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth:  whea 


234 

literature  shall  enlighten  all  minds ;  when  the  claims  of  humanity  shall  be 
recognized  everywhere,  this  act  shall  still  be  conspicuous  on  the  pages  of 
history.  We  are  thankful  that  God  gave  to  Abraham  Lincoln  the  decision  and 
wisdom  and  grace  to  issue  that  proclamation,  which  stands  high  above  all  other 
papers  which  have  been  penned  by  uninspired  men. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  good  man.  He  was  known  as  an  honest,  temperate, 
forgiving  man,  a  just  man,  a  man  of  noble  heart  in  every  way.  As  to  his 
religious  experience,  I  cannot  speak  definitely,  because  I  was  not  privileged  to 
know  much  of  his  private  sentiments.  My  acquaintance  with  him  did  not 
give  me  the  opportunity  to  hear  him  speak  on  those  topics.  This  I  know,  how- 
ever, he  read  the  Bible  frequently;  loved  it  for  its  great  truths  and  its  profound 
teachings ;  and  he  tried  to  be  guided  by  its  precepts.  He  believed  in  Christ,  the 
Saviour  of  sinners ;  and  I  think  he  was  sincere  in  trying  to  bring  his  life  into 
harmony  with  the  principles  of  revealed  religion.  Certainly  if  there  ever  was 
a  man  who  illustrated  some  of  the  principles  of  pure  religion,  that  man  was  our 
departed  President.  Look  over  all  his  speeches,  listen  to  his  utterances.  He 
never  spoke  unkindly  of  any  man.  Even  the  rebels  received  no  word  of  anger 
from  him,  and  his  last  day  illustrated  in  a  remarkable  manner  his  forgiving  dis- 
position. A  despatch  was  received  that  afternoon  that  Thompson  and  Tucker 
were  trying  to  make  their  escape  through  Maine,  and  it  was  proposed  to  arrest 
them.  Mr.  Lincoln,  however,  preferred  rather  to  let  them  quietly  escape.  He 
was  seeking  to  save  the  very  men  who  had  been  plotting  his  destruction.  This 
morning  we  read  a  proclamation  offering  $25,000  for  the  arrest  of  these  men  as 
aiders  and  abettors  of  his  assassination ;  so  that,  in  his  expiring  acts,  he  was 
Baying,  "Father,  forgive  them,  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

As  a  ruler,  I  doubt  if  any  President  has  ever  shown  such  trust  in  God,  or  in 
public  documents  so  frequently  referred  to  divine  aid.  Often  did  he  remark  to 
friends  and  to  delegations  that  his  hope  for  our  success  rested  in  his  conviction 
that  God  would  bless  our  efforts,  because  we  were  trying  to  do  right.  To  the 
address  of  a  large  religious  body  he  replied,  "  Thanks  be  unto  God,  who,  in  our 
national  trials,  giveth  us  the  churches."  To  a  minister  who  said  he  hoped  the 
Lord  was  on  our  side,  he  replied  that  it  gave  him  no  concern  whether  the  Lord 
was  on  our  side  or  not,  for,  he  added,  "  I  know  the  Lord  is  always  on  the  side 
of  right,"  and,  with  deep  feeling,  added,  "  But  God  is  my  witness  that  it  is  my 
constant  anxiety  and  prayer  that  both  myself  and  this  nation  should  be  on  the 
Lord's  side." 

In  his  domestic  life  he  was  exceedingly  kind  and  affectionate.  He  was  a 
devoted  husband  and  father.  During  his  presidential  term  he  lost  his  second 
son,  Willie.  To  an  officer  of  the  army  he  said,  not  long  since,  "  Do  you  ever 
find  yourself  talking  with  the  dead?"  and  added,  "Since  Willie's  death  I  catch 
myself  every  day  involuntarily  talking  with  him,  as  if  he  were  with  me."  On 
his  widow,  who  is  unable  to  be  here,  I  need  only  invoke  the  blessing  of  Almighty 
God  that  she  may  be  comforted  and  sustained.  For  his  son,  who  has  witnessed 
the  exercises  of  this  hour,  all  that  I  can  desire  is  that  the  mantle  of  his  father 
may  fall  upon  him. 

Let  us  pause  a  moment  in  the  lesson  of  the  hour  before  we  part.  This  man, 
though  he  fell  by  an  assassin,  still  fell  under  the  permissive  hand  of  God.     He 


235 

had  some  wise  purpose  ia  allowing  him  so  to  fall.  What  more  could  he  have 
desired  of  life  for  himself?  Were  not  his  honors  full?  There  was  no  office  to 
which  he  could  aspire.  The  popular  heart  clung  around  him  as  around  no 
other  man.  The  nations  of  the  world  had  learned  to  honor  our  chief  magis- 
trate. If  rumors  of  a  desired  alliance  with  England  be  true,  Napoleon  trem- 
bled when  he  heard  of  the  fall  of  Richmond,  and  asked  what  nation  would 
join  him  to  protect  him  against  our  government  under  the  guidance  of  such  a 
man.  His  fame  was  full,  his  work  was  done,  and  he  sealed  his  glory  by  becom- 
ing the  nation's  great  martyr  for  liberty. 

He  appears  to  have  had  a  strange  presentiment,  early  in  political  life,  that 
some  day  he  would  be  President.  You  see  it  indicated  in  1839.  Of  the  slave 
power  he  said,  "Broken  by  it  I  too  may  be;  bow  to  it  I  never  will.  The  prob- 
ability that  we  may  fail  in  the  struggle  ought  not  to  deter  us  from  the  support 
of  a  cause  which  I  deem  to  be  just.  It  shall  not  deter  me.  If  ever  I  feel  the 
soul  within  me  elevate  and  expand  to  those  dimensions  not  wholly  unworthy 
of  its  Almighty  architect,  it  is  when  I  contemplate  the  cause  of  my  country, 
deserted  by  all  the  world  besides,  and  I  standing  up  boldly  and  alone  and  hurl- 
ing defiance  at  her  victorious  oppressors.  Here,  without  contemplating  conse- 
quences, before  high  Heaven  and  in  the  face  of  the  world,  I  swear  eternal 
fidelity  to  the  just  cause,  as  I  deem  it,  of  the  land  of  my  life,  my  liberty,  and 
my  love."  And  yet,  secretly,  he  said  to  more  than  one,  "  I  never  shall  live  out 
the  four  years  of  my  term.  Wher»  the  rebellion  is  crushed  my  work  is  done." 
So  it  was.  He  lived  to  see  the  last  battle  fought,  and  dictate  a  despatch  from 
the  home  of  Jefferson  Davis  ;  lived  till  the  power  of  the  rebellion  was  broken; 
and  then,  having  done  the  work  for  which  God  had  sent  him,  angels,  I  trust, 
were  sent  to  shield  him  from  one  moment  of  pain  or  suffering,  and  to  bear  him 
from  this  world  to  the  high  and  glorious  realm  where  the  patriot  and  the  good 
shall  live  forever. 

His  career  teaches  young  men  that  every  position  of  eminence  ia  open  before 
the  diligent  and  the  worthy.  To  the  active  men  of  the  country,  his  example 
is  an  incentive  to  trust  in  God  and  do  right. 

Standing,  as  we  do  to-day,  by  his  coffin  and  his  sepulchre,  let  us  resolve  to 
carry  forward  the  policy  which  he  so  nobly  began.  Let  us  do  right  to  all  men. 
To  the  ambitious  there  is  this  fearful  lesson.  Of  the  four  candidates  for  Presi- 
dential honors  in  1860,  two  of  them — Douglas  and  Lincoln,  once  competitors, 
but  now  sleeping  patriots — rest  from  their  labors ;  Bell  perished  in  poverty  and 
misery,  as  a  traitor  might  perish ;  and  Breckinridge  is  a  frightened  fugitive, 
with  the  brand  of  traitor  on  his  brow.  Let  us  vow,  in  the  sight  of  Heaven,  to 
eradicate  every  vestige  of  human  slavery ;  to  give  every  human  being  his  true 
position  before  God  and  man ;  to  crush  every  form  of  rebellion,  and  to  stand  by 
the  flag  which  God  has  given  us.  How  joyful  that  it  floated  over  parts  of 
every  State  before  Mr.  Lincoln's  career  was  ended.  How  singular  that,  to  the 
fact  of  the  assassin's  heels  being  caught  in  the  folds  of  the  flag,  we  are  proba- 
bly indebted  for  his  capture.     The  flag  and  the  traitor  must  ever  be  enemies. 

Traitors  will  probably  suffer  by  the  change  of  rulers,  for  one  of  sterner  mould, 
and  who  himself  has  deeply  suffered  from  the  rebellion,  now  wields  the  sword 
of  justice.    Our  country,  too,  is  stronger  for  the  trial.     A  republic  was  declared 


236 

by  monarchists  too  weak  to  endure  a  civil  war ;  yet  we  have  crushed  the  moel 
gigantic  rebellion  in  history,  and  have  grown  in  strength  and  population  every 
year  of  the  struggle.  We  have  passed  through  the  ordeal  of  a  popular  election 
while  swords  and  bayonets  were  in  the  field,  and  have  come  out  unharmed. 
And  now,  in  an  hour  of  excitement,  with  a  large  majority  having  preferred 
another  man  for  President,  when  the  bullet  of  the  assassin  has  laid  our  Presi- 
dent prostrate,  has  there  been  a  mutiny?  Has  any  rival  proffered  his  claims? 
Out  of  an  army  of  near  a  million,  no  officer  or  soldier  uttered  one  note  of  dis- 
sent, and,  in  an  hour  or  two  after  Mr.  Lincoln's  death,  another  leader,  under 
constitutional  forms,  occupied  his  chair,  and  the  government  moved  forward 
without  one  single  jar.  The  world  will  learn  that  republics  are  the  strongest 
governments  on  earth. 

And  now,  my  friends,  in  the  words  of  the  departed,  "  witn  malice  towards 
none,"  free  from  all  feelings  of  personal  vengeance,  yet  believing  that  the  sword 
must  not  be  borne  in  vain,  let  us  go  forward  even  in  painful  duty.  Let  every 
man  who  was  a  Senator  or  Eepresentative  in  Congress,  and  who  aided  in  begin- 
ning this  rebellion,  and  thus  led  to  the  slaughter  of  our  sons  and  daughters,  be 
brought  to  speedy  and  to  certain  punishment.  Let  every  officer  educated  at 
the  public  expense,  and  who,  having  been  advanced  to  position,  perjured  him- 
self and  turned  his  sword  against  the  vitals  of  his  country,  be  doomed  to  a 
traitor's  death.  This,  I  believe,  is  the  will  of  the  American  people.  Men  may 
attempt  to  compromise  and  to  restore  these*  traitors  and  murderers  to  society 
again.  Vainly  may  they  talk  of  the  fancied  honor  or  chivalry  of  these  mur- 
derers of  our  sons — these  starvers  of  our  prisoners — these  officers  who  mined 
their  prisons  and  placed  kegs  of  powder  to  destroy  our  captive  officers.  But 
the  American  people  will  rise  in  their  majesty  and  sweep  all  such  compromises 
and  compromisers  away,  and  will  declare  that  there  shall  be  no  safety  for  rebel 
leaders.  But  to  the  deluded  masses  we  will  extend  the  arms  of  forgiveness. 
We  will  take  them  to  our  hearts,  and  walk  with  them  side  by  side,  as  we  go 
forward  to  work  out  a  glorious  destiny. 

The  time  will  come  when,  in  the  beautiful  words  of  him  whose  lips  are  now 
forever  sealed,  "  the  mystic  cords  of  memory  which  stretch  from  every  battle- 
field, and  from  every  patriot's  grave,  shall  yield  a  sweeter  music  when  touched 
by  the  angels  of  our  better  nature." 

Chieftain!  farewell!  The  nation  mourns  thee.  Mothers  shall  teach  thy 
name  to  their  lisping  children.  The  youth  of  our  land  shall  emulate  thy 
virtues.  Statesmen  shall  study  thy  record  and  learn  lessons  of  wisdom.  Mute 
though  thy  lips  be,  yet  they  still  speak.  Hushed  is  thy  voice,  but  its  echoes  of 
liberty  are  ringing  through  the  world,  and  the  sons  of  bondage  listen  with  joy. 
Prisoned  thou  art  in  death,  and  yet  thou  art  marching  abroad,  and  chains  and 
manacles  are  bursting  at  thy  touch.  Thou  didst  fall  not  for  thyself.  The 
assassin  had  no  hate  for  thee.  Our  hearts  were  aimed  at,  our  national  life  was 
sought.  We  crown  thee  as  our  martyr — and  humanity  enthrones  thee  as  her 
triumphant  son.     Hero,  martyr,  friend,  farewell ! 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  oration.  "  Over  the  Yallej  the  An- 
eels  smile"  was  suns. 


237 

Rev.  Dr.  P.  D.  Gurley  then  arose,  made  a  few  remarks,  and 
oflfered  the  closing  prayer.  The  following  hymn  and  doxology 
was  then  sung  : 

Best,  noble  martyr !  rest  in  peace; 

Rest  with  the  true  and  brave, 
Who,  like  thee,  fell  in  Freedom's  cause, 

The  Nation's  life  to  save. 

Thy  name  shall  live  while  time  endures, 

And  men  shall  say  of  thee, 
"  He  saved  his  country  from  its  foes, 

And  bade  the  slave  be  free." 

These  deeds  shall  be  thy  monument, 

Better  than  brass  or  stone ; 
They  leave  thy  fame  in  glory's  light, 

Unrival'd  and  alone. 

This  consecrated  spot  shall  be 

To  Freedom  ever  dear ; 
And  Freedom's  sons  of  every  race 

Shall  weep  and  worship  here. 

0  God !  before  whom  we,  in  tears. 

Our  fallen  chief  deplore. 
Grant  that  the  cause  for  which  he  died 

May  live  forevermore. 

To  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 

The  God  whom  we  adore. 
Be  glory,  as  it  was,  is  now, 

And  shall  be  evermore. 

Rev.  Dr.  Gurley  pronounced  the  benediction,  and  the  solemn 
funeral  services  at  the  tomb  of  Abraham  Lincoln  closed. 

As  days  of  national  dedication  will  the  annals  of  history 
hold  in  perpetual  record  the  closing  days  of  April  and  the  first 
days  of  May,  1865.  Washington  to  Springfield  has  become 
the  via  sacra  of  the  republic,  marked  by  the  fallen  tears  of  a 
nation's  love.  Springfield,  as  the  depository  of  Lincoln's  re- 
mains, assumes  classic  rank  with  Mount  Vernon,  and  these  sa- 
cred sites  become  the  foci  of  the  national  domain,  where  will 
concentrate  the  patriotic  devotion  of  loyal  America.  Death 
has  given  renewed  vitality  to  patriotism,  and  from  the  martyr's 
tomb  springs  undying  loyalty,  and  devotion  to  the  perpetuity 
and  glory  of  the  Union,  sealed  and  made  sacred  by  the  sacri- 
ficial death  of  its  martyred  President.  Abraham  Lincoln. 


TRIBUTES  AND  SYMPATHY  OF  FOREIGN 

NATIONS. 


In  Europe  the  assassination  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States  produced  the  profoundest  sensation  and  sorrow.  Every 
court  was  in  mourning,  and  the  official  and  popular  expressions 
of  sympathy  for  the  American  government  and  people  were 
universal.  The  solemn  scenes  there  were  scarcely  less  affecting 
and  sorrowful  than  here,  and  the  chain  of  international  friend- 
ship between  the  nations  of  Europe  and  America  was  strength- 
ened and  brightened  by  the  great  affliction  which  had  fallen 
upon  the  government  and  people  of  the  United  States. 

GREAT   BRITAIN 

gave  the  fullest  and  heartiest  manifestations  of  grief.  In  Par- 
liament, on  the  reception  of  the  intelligence,  Earl  Russell  rose 
in  the  House  of  Lords  and  said: 

I  am.  Bure  your  lordships  will  feel  entire  sympathy  with  her  Majesty, 
who  has  instructed  me  already  to  express  to  the  government  of  the  United 
States  the  shock  which  she  felt  at  the  intelligence  of  the  great  crime  which  has 
been  committed.  *  *  *  All  I  can  say  is,  that,  in  the  presence  of  the  great 
calamity  which  has  fallen  on  the  American  nation,  the  Crown,  the  Parliament, 
and  the  people  of  this  country  do  feel  the  deepest  interest  for  the  government 
and  people  of  the  United  States ;  for,  owing  to  the  nature  of  the  relations  be- 
tween the  two  nations,  the  misfortunes  of  the  United  States  affect  us  more  than 
the  misfortunes  of  any  other  nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 

The  noble  Lord  concluded  by  moving  a  humble  address  to 
her  Majesty,  to  express  the  sorrow  and  indignation  of  the 
House  of  Lords  at  the  assassination  of  the  President  of  the 

239 


240 

United  States,  and  to  pray  her  Majesty  to  communicate  these 
sentiments  to  the  government  of  the  United  States. 
Tiie  Earl  of  Derby  said: 

In  joining  in  this  address,  your  Lordship  will  only  follow  the  universal 
feeling  of  sympathy  which  has  been  expressed  from  one  end  of  this  kingdom  to 
the  other.  I  hope  that  the  manner  in  which  the  news  has  been  received  in  this, 
country  will  satisfy  the  people  of  the  United  States  that  her  Majesty's  subjects, 
one  and  all,  deeply  condemn  the  crime  which  has  been  committed,  and  deeply 
sympathize  with  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  their  feelings  of  horror  at 
the  assassination  of  their  chief  magistrate. 

Lord  Stratford  de  Redcliffe  said  : 

The  expression  of  our  sympathy  is  not  confined  to  numerous  associations  in 
every  part  of  the  country.  It  now  assumes  the  more  solemn  character  of  a 
Parliamentary  condolence,  confirmed  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  both  Houses, 
and  crowned  by  the  gracious  participation  of  a  sovereign  whose  sad  acquaint- 
ance with  sorrow  is  the  strongest  pledge  of  her  sincerity. 

Sir  George  Grey,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  said  : 

I  wish  it  were  possible  for  us  to  convey  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  an 
adequate  idea  of  the  depth  and  universality  of  the  feeling  which  this  sad  event 
has  occasioned  in  this  country,  that  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  there  has 
been  but  one  feeling  entertained.  Her  Majesty's  minister  at  Washington  will, 
in  obedience  to  the  Queen's  command,  convey  to  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  the  expression  of  the  feelings  of  her  Majesty  and  of  her  Government 
upon  the  deplorable  event;  and  her  Majesty,  with  that  tender  consideration 
which  sLo  has  always  evinced  for  sorrow  and  suffering  in  others,  of  whatever 
rank,  [cheers,]  has  with  her  own  hand  written  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Lincoln,  [loud 
cheers,]  conveying  the  heartfelt  sympathy  of  a  widow  to  a  widow,  [renewed 
cheers,]  suffering  under  the  calamity  of  having  lost  one  suddenly  cut  off. 
[Cheers.]  From  every  part  of  this  country,  from  every  class,  but  one  voice  has 
been  heard — one  of  abhorrence  for  the  crime  and  of  sympathy  for  and  interest 
in  the  country  which  has  this  great  loss  to  mourn. 

Mr.  Disraeli  said : 

In  expressing  our  unaffected  and  profound  sympathy  with  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  on  this  untimely  end  of  their  elected  Chief,  let  us  not  sanction 
any  feeling  of  depression,  but  rather  let  us  express  a  fervent  hope  that  out  of 
the  awful  trials  of  the  last  four  years,  of  which  the  least  is  not  this  violent 
demise,  the  various  populations  of  North  America  may  issue  elevated  and 
chastened,  rich  in  the  accumulated  wisdom  and  strong  in  the  disciplined  en- 
ergy which  a  young  nation  can  only  acquire  in  a  protracted  and  perilous  strug- 
gle.    Then  they  will  be  enabled,  not  only  to  renew  their  career  of  power  and 


241 

prosperity,  but  they  will  renew  it  to  contribute  to  tbe  general  happiness  of  the 
world. 

The  address  of  the  Queen,  as  moved  in  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, and  referred  to  by  Earl  Russell,  was  forwarded  to  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  but  has  not,  up  to  this 
date,  (June,  1865,)  been  published  in  this  country.  It,  and 
other  addresses  of  condolence  from  European  Governments, 
and  from  many  public  bodies  and  popular  assemblages  in 
Great  Britain  and  on  the  Continent,  are  on  file  in  the  State 
Department  at  Washington.  Written  application  was  made 
to  the  Acting  Secretary  for  copies  of  the  one  from  the  Gov- 
ernment of  Great  Britain,  and  one  or  two  others,  necessary 
to  complete  the  chain  of  official  addresses  from  Europe,  as 
inserted  in  this  volume,  which  application  was  to  be  referred 
to  Hon.  William  H.  Seward,  the  distinguished  Secretary  of 
State,  when  he  should  be  able  to  resume  the  duties  of  the  de- 
partment over  which  he  has  presided  with  such  signal  ability 
and  success.  Owing  to  the  continued  feebleness  of  the  Secretary 
of  State,  who  was  to  have  been  one  of  the  victims  of  assassi- 
nation with  our  late  honored  and  beloved  President,  and  whose 
life  but  scarcely  escaped  the  assassin's  thrust,  the  application 
was  not  made.  If  these  foreign  addresses  should  ever  be  pub- 
lished by  our  national  authorities,  they  will,  doubtless,  furnish 
most  interesting  and  noble  testimonials  of  international  friend- 
ship and  sympathy,  and  tend  to  bind  the  nations  of  the  earth 
into  closer  bonds  of  peace  and  concord. 

On  the  receipt  of  the  melancholy  intelligence  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  about  sixty  members  of  all  parties  immediately 
assembled,  and  signed  the  following  address  of  sympathy  to 
the  American  minister : 

We,  the  undersigned,  members  of  the  British  House  of  Commons,  have  learnt 
with  the  deepest  horror  and  regret  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  of 
America  has  been  deprived  of  life  by  an  act  of  violence;  and  we  desire  to  ex- 
press our  sympathy  on  the  sad  event  with  the  American  minister,  now  in  Lon- 
don, as  well  as  to  declare  our  hope  and  confidence  in  the  future  of  that  great 
country,  which  we  trust  will  continue  to  be  associated  witli  enlightened  free- 
dom and  peaceful  relations  with  this  and  every  other  country. 

London,  April  29,  1865. 
16 


242 

The  sacredness  that  shields  the  silence  of  private  sorrow 
will,  probably,  ever  prevent  the  letter  of  the  Queen  of  England 
to  the  widow  of  the  late  President  of  the  United  States  from 
receiving  publicity  ;  yet  the  fact,  so  fitly  referred  to  by  Earl 
Russell  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  by  Sir  George  Grey  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  presents  a  beautiful  lesson  of  the  sorrows 
of  our  common  humanity,  and  will,  doubtless,  bind  together  in 
closer  and  more  affectionate  friendship  the  two  greatest  Chris- 
tian nations  of  earth. 

In  harmony  with  the  unusual  grief  of  the  Crown,  the  Parlia- 
ment, and  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  Sir  Frederick  Bruce,  the 
new  Minister  from  the  Court  of  St.  James,  arriving  in  this 
country  just  at  the  occurrence  of  the  death  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  also  addressed  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Lincoln,  ex- 
pressive of  his  own  sympathy  and  that  of  the  great  nation  he 
represented,  for  the  calamity  which  enshrouded  lier  own  heart 
and  home,  and  the  Government  and  people  of  the  United  States, 
with  such  deep  and  profound  sorrow. 

The  Manchester  Union  Emancipation  Society  of  England, 
representing  the  feelings  of  the  friends  of  general  freedom  in 
that  country,  sent  also  to  the  widow  of  the  late  President  the 
following  touching  communication: 

To  Mrs.  Lincoln: 

Madam:  It  is  not  for  us  to  invade  the  privacy  of  domestic  sorrow,  nor  fitting 
that  we  should  add  to  the  sharpness  of  your  grief  by  characterizing  as  it 
deserves  the  deed  which  has  deprived  you  of  a  husband  and  your  country  of  its 
Chief  Magistrate.  We  desire,  however,  to  express  our  deep  sympathy  with  you 
in  this  mournful  affliction,  and  our  earnest  hope  that  you  may  be  supported 
through  the  trial  by  the  consciousness  that  your  husband,  though  called  to  the 
helm  in  the  midst  of  tempest  and  storm,  never  failed  to  respond  to  the  call  of 
duty,  and  that  throughout  a  period  of  unparalleled  difficulty  he  has  guided  the 
affairs  of  the  nation  in  a  manner  which  will  ever  connect  his  name  with  all 
that  is  noble,  magnanimous,  and  great  in  your  country's  history.  His  name 
•will  be  associated  with  the  cause  of  human  freedom  throughout  all  time,  and 
generations  yet  unborn  will  learn  to  lisp  his  name  as  synonymous  with  liberty 
itself,  and  to  connect  the  atrocious  deed  by  which  his  career  was  closed  with  the 
expiring  throes  of  that  foul  system  of  slavery  against  which  his  life  was  a 
standing  protest,  and  the  fate  of  which  he  had  sealed. 

The  Emancipation  Society  of  London  convened  on  the  29th 
of  April,  1865,  on  the  reception  of  the  news  of  President  Lin- 


243 

coin's  assassination.  It  was  a  most  magnificent  and  impressive 
demonstration.  The  hall  is  one  of  the  largest  and  most  beau- 
tiful in  London.  American  flags,  looped  with  crape,  and  droop- 
ing, and  black  drapery  edged  with  white,  gave  a  solemn  and 
sombre  display  to  the  hall  and  scene.  The  building  was  crowded 
in  every  part,  and  multitudes  were  unable  to  obtain  admission. 
The  ladies  who  were  present  were  dressed  in  deep  mourning. 
Many  members  of  Parliament  and  eminent  citizens  of  the  United 
States  then  in  London  were  in  attendance.  The  magnitude 
and  representative  character  of  the  assembly,  the  solemnity  and 
enthusiasm,  the  eloquence  and  ability  of  the  speeches,  surpassed 
all  meetings  which  had  been  held  in  London  for  many  years. 

Public  meetings  and  organized  associations  in  London  and 
throughout  Great  Britain,  united  to  give  expressions  of  sorrow 
at  the  sad  event. 

A  great  meeting  of  the  merchants  of  Liverpool  was  held  at 
St.  George's  Hall,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  27th  of  April,  1865,  to 
express  the  sentiments  of  the  people  at  the  assassination  of 
President  Lincoln.  The  Mayor  presided,  and  he  and  several 
leading  merchants  made  speeches,  denouncing  the  crime  and 
expressing  sympathy  with  the  people  of  the  United  States  in 
strong  terms.  A  resolution  expressing  sorrow  and  indignation, 
regardless  of  all  differences  of  opinion  politically,  was  unani- 
mously adopted,  and  ordered  to  be  sent  to  the  American  Minis- 
ter at  London,  to  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  to  Mrs.  Seward. 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  and  at  the  same  place,  there 
was  another  great  meeting  of  the  working  classes,  at  which 
similar  resolutions  were  adopted. 

The  Common  Council  of  London  and  the  American  Chamber 
of  Commerce  in  Liverpool  adopted  resolutions  of  sympathy 
and  indignation. 

Large  numbers  of  Germans  in  London  also  presented  an  ad- 
dress to  Mr.  Adams. 

The  press  of  Great  Britain,  with  singular  unanimity,  and  in 
language  of  pathetic  sorrow  and  passionate  eloquence  and 
indignation,  expressed  the  deep  public  sentiment  of  that  great 
empire. 


244 

The  London  Times,  the  great  and  influential  paper  of  the 
kingdom,  in  its  issue  of  the  27th  of  April,  1865,  said: 

The  American  news  we  publish  this  morning  will  be  received  throughont 
Europe  with  sorrow  as  sincere  and  profound  as  it  awoke  even  in  the  United 
States.  Deeds  of  such  atrocity  cover  their  perpetrators  with  everlasting  infamy 
and  discredit  the  cause  they  are  presumably  meant  to  serve. 

The  GlohCy  (London,)  said: 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  come  nobly  through  a  great  ordeal.  He  had  extorted  the 
approval  even  of  his  opponents,  at  least  on  this  side  of  the  water.  They  had 
come  to  admire,  reluctantly,  his  firmness,  honesty,  fairness,  and  sagacity.  He 
tried  to  do,  and  had  done,  what  he  considered  his  duty  with  magnanimity.  He 
had  never  called  for  vengeance  upon  any  one.  In  his  dealings  with  foreign 
countries,  and  his  expressions  with  regard  to  them,  he  had  become  to  be  re- 
markable, because,  among  American  Presidents,  he  showed  a  justness  of  view 
and  tone  which  was  not  common. 

The  Express,  (Loudon,)  remarks: 

President  Lincoln  is  dead.  He  has  gone  too  soon,  indeed,  and  yet,  had  it 
been  earlier,  how  far  greater  had  been  our  loss.  He  had  tried  to  show  the 
world  how  great,  how  moderate,  and  true  he  could  be  in  the  moment  of  his 
great  triumph.  He  had  lived  to  inspire  a  whole  people  with  the  spirit  of  peace 
and  good  will  towards  that  section  of  their  race  with  whom  they  had  so  long 
contended  in  bitter  warfare. 

The  Daily  Post,  (Liverpool,)  April  27, 1865,  published  the 
following: 

In  the  hour  of  Northern  victory  the  Northern  President  has  been  martyred. 
His  faithfulness  to  his  sworn  duty  has  cost  him  his  life.  If  ever  there  was  a 
man  who  in  trying  times  avoided  offences  it  was  Mr.  Lincoln.  If  there  ever 
was  a  leader  in  a  civil  contest  who  shunned  acrimony  and  eschewed  passion  it 
was  he.  In  a  time  of  much  cant  and  affectation  he  was  simple,  unaffected, 
true,  transparent.  In  a  season  of  many  mistakes  he  was  never  known  to 
be  wrong.  When  almost  all  were  dubious  he  was  clear;  where  many  were 
recreant  he  was  faithful.  By  a  happy  tact,  not  often  so  felicitously  blended 
with  pure  evidences  of  soul,  Abraham  Lincoln  knew  when  to  speak,  and  never 
spoke  too  early  or  too  late. 

The  mortal  part  of  Abraham  Lincoln  will  be  consigned  to  an  honorable  and 
long-remembered  tomb ;  but  the  memory  of  his  statesmanship,  translucent 
in  the  highest  degree,  above  the  average,  and  openly  faithful,  more  than 
almost  any  of  this  age  has  witnessed,  to  fact  and  right,  will  live  in  the  hearts 
and  minds  of  the  whole  Anglo-Saxon  race  as  one  of  the  noblest  examples  of 
that  race's  highest  qualities.     Add  to  all  this  tliat  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the 


245 

humblest  and  pleasantest  of  men,  that  he  had  raised  himself  from  nothing,  and 
that  to  the  last  no  grain  of  conceit  or  ostentation  was  found  in  him,  and  there 
stands  before  the  world  a  man  whose  like  we  shall  not  soon  look  upon  again. 

The  national  journal  of  Ireland,  the  IrisJiman^  said: 

History  has  written  her  last,  greatest  epoch  in  pure  and  noble  blood — ^in  the 
blood  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States. 

Though  we  mourn  for  the  death  of  Lincoln,  we  feel  no  foreshadowing  of 
danger.  *  *  *  President  after  President  may  fall ;  but  the  Nation 
lives — the  Nation  rules.  Its  fate  is  not  in  the  hands  of  its  governors,  but  in 
its  own.  Rulers  do  not  make  it;  it  makes  its  rulers.  This  is  the  peculiar  glory 
of  democracy.  This  it  is  which  makes  a  republic  so  stable.  In  our  sorrow  for 
the  death  of  Lincoln  we  have  confidence  in  the  republic — we  remember  that 

LiBEETT  LIVES. 

The  Weekly  Northern  Whig,  Belfast,  Ireland,  April  29, 1865, 
said: 

Abraham  Lincoln,  the  saviour  of  the  republic,  is  its  martyr.  A  good  and 
great  man,  but  a  few  days  since  the  noblest  living  type  of  Christian  statesman- 
Bhip,  has  been  struck  down  by  the  assassin's  bullet.  Happily  the  first  part  of 
his  great  work  was  finished  before  he  was  called  away. 

He  has  fallen  in  the  hour  of  victory,  not  of  a  victory  of  brute  force,  but  of  a 
victory  gained  chiefly  by  the  operation  of  those  great  moral  causes  which  move 
the  world.  He  has  died  a  martyr  for  principles  as  noble  as  those  for  which 
ever  martyr  died.  In  his  death  we  may,  indeed,  look  for  a  fresh  triumph  to 
those  principles,  and  we  can  only  humbly  bow  iu  submission  to  that  wisdom 
which  guides  and  directs  all  things. 

FRANCE. 

In  the  French  Corps  Legislatif,  on  the  1st  of  May,  M.  Rou- 
ber,  Minister  of  State,  said: 

An  odious  crime  has  plunged  in  mourning  a  people  which  is  our  ally  and 
our  friend.  The  report  of  this  crime  has  produced  throughout  the  civilized 
world  a  sentiment  of  indignation  and  of  horror.  Abraham  Lincoln  had  ex- 
hibited, in  the  sad  struggle  which  rends  his  country,  that  calm  firmness  and 
indomitable  energy  which  belong  to  strong  minds,  and  are  the  necessary  condi- 
tions of  the  accomplishment  of  great  duties.  In  the  hours  of  victory  he  ex- 
hibited generosity,  moderation,  and  conciliation.  He  hastened  to  put  an  end 
to  war  and  restore  peace — America  to  her  splendor  and  prosperity.  [Marks  of 
approbation.]  The  first  punishment  which  God  inflicts  upon  crime  is  to  render 
it  powerless  to  retard  the  march  of  right.  The  profound  emotion  and  the  deep 
Bympathy  manifested  in  Europe  will  be  received  by  the  American  people  as  a 
consolation  and  encouragement.     The  work  of  peace,  commenced  by  a  grand 


246 

citizen,  will  be  completed  by  the  national  will.  The  Government  of  the  Em- 
peror has  caused  to  be  sent  to  Washington  the  expression  of  a  legitimate  hom- 
age to  the  memory  of  an  illustrious  statesman,  torn  from  tne  Government  of 
the  United  States  by  an  execrable  assassin.  By  order  of  the  Emperor  I  liave 
the  honor  to  communicate  to  the  Corps  Legislatif  the  despatch  sent  by  the  Min- 
ister of  Foreign  Affairs  to  our  representative  at  Washington.  It  is  conceived 
as  follows : 

MiiriSTr.T  OF  Foeeign  Affairs, 

Paris,  April  28.  , 

The  news  of  the  crime  of  which  M.  le  President  Lincoln  has  fallen  a  victim 
has  caused  a  profound  sentiment  of  indignation  in  the  imperial  Government. 
His  ^lajesty  immediately  charged  one  of  his  aides-de-camp  to  call  upon  the 
Minister  of  the  United  States  to  request  him  to  transmit  the  expression  of  this 
sentiment  to  Mr.  Johnson,  now  invested  with  the  Presidency.  I  myself  de- 
sired, by  the  despatch  which  I  addressed  j'ou  under  date  of  yesterday,  to  ac- 
quaint you  without  delay  of  the  painful  emotion  which  we  have  experienced; 
and  it  becomes  my  duty  to-day,  in  conformity  with  the  views  of  the  Emperor, 
to  render  a  merited  homage  to  the  great  citizen  whose  loss  the  United  States 
now  deplore. 

Elevated  to  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  the  republic  by  the  suffrage  of  his  coun- 
try, Abraham  Lincoln  exhibited,  in  the  exercise  of  the  power  placed  in  his  hands, 
the  most  substantial  qualities.  In  him  firmness  of  character  was  allied  with  ele- 
vation of  principle,  and  his  vigorous  soul  never  wavered  before  the  redoubtable 
trials  reserved  for  his  Government.  At  the  moment  when  an  atrocious  crime 
removed  him  from  the  mission  which  he  fulfilled  with  a  religious  sentiment  of 
duty,  he  was  convinced  that  the  triumph  of  his  policy  was  definitely  assured. 
His  recent  proclamations  are  stamped  with  the  sentiments  of  moderation  with 
which  he  was  inspired,  in  resolutely  proceeding  to  the  task  of  reorganizing  the 
Union  and  consolidating  peace.  The  supreme  satisfaction  of  accomplishing 
this  work  has  not  been  accorded  to  him ;  but  in  reviewing  these  last  testimonies 
to  his  exalted  wisdom,  as  well  as  the  examples  of  good  sense,  of  courage,  and 
of  patriotism,  which  he  has  given,  history  will  not  hesitate  to  place  him  in  the 
rank  of  citizens  who  the  most  honored  their  country.  [Cries  of  "  tres  bien,  ires 
hien."]  By  order  of  the  Emperor,  I  transmit  this  despatch  to  AI.  the  Minister 
of  State,  who  is  charged  to  communicate  it  to  the  Senate  and  the  Corps  Legisla- 
tif. France  will  unanimously  associate  itself  with  the  sentiment  of  his  Majesty. 
Keceive,  &c.,  &c. 

DROUYN  DE  L'HUYS. 

M.  Dk  Geofet,  Charge  cP Affaires  de  France  at  Washington. 

The  same  letter  was  read  in  the  Upper  House,  and  received 
with  equal  approbation.  Speeches  by  various  members  were 
also  made  in  both  Houses. 

L^  Opinion  Nationale,  La  Siede,  VAvenir  Nationale,  and  Le 
Temps  have  prepared  an  address,  signed  by  the  whole  corps  of 


247 

their  contributors,  while  all  the  papers  publish  a  note,  which  is 
to  receive  signatures  until  the  8th,  when  it  will  be  handed  to 
Mr.  Bigelow.     This  note  is  as  follows  : 

United  from  the  bottom  of  our  hearts  with  the  citizens  of  the  American  re- 
public, we  come  to  express  our  admiration  for  the  great  people  which  have 
destroyed  the  laet  vestiges  of  slavery,  and  for  Lincoln,  the  martyr  to  duty. 

All  the  leading  liberals  signed  the  above. 

The  assembly  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  of  France  voted 
addresses  to  President  Johnson  and  to  Mrs.  Lincoln,  to  be 
signed  by  the  pastors  of  the  Protestant  churches  of  France. 

A  most  significant  and  imposing  demonstration,  in  Paris,  was 
made  by  two  thousand  students  of  the  College  de  France.  They 
proceeded  to  the  American  legation,  and  alarge  committee  having 
sheltered  themselves  under  the  American  flag,  read  to  Mr.  Bige- 
low, Minister  from  the  United  States,  an  eloquent  and  sympathiz- 
ing address,  to  which  he  made  a  reply  in  writing.  Mrs.  Bigelow 
was  present  at  the  interview,  which  was  so  very  full  of  kindly 
sympathy  on  the  part  of  the  young  Frenchmen  that  she  could 
not  refrain  from  tears.  All  Paris  was  moved  to  show  how 
deeply  it  felt  the  loss  which  is  sustained  not  only  by  America, 
but  by  the  whole  world,  in  the  death  of  President  Lincoln. 

The  following  letter  of  the  Count  de  Paris,  the  grandson  of 
Louis  Philippe,  and  the  present  head  of  the  Orleans  family,  is 
another  testimony  to  the  character  of  President  Lincoln.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  the  writer,  with  his  brother,  Duke  de 
Chartres,  served  for  a  year  in  the  army  of  the  Potomac,  where 
they  were  much  regarded  by  their  brother  officers.  In  their 
English  exile  since,  they  have  kept  alive  those  original  sympa- 
thies which  led  them  to  enlist  on  our  side.  The  letter  is  writ- 
ten from  Twickenham,  in  England,  and  is  addressed  to  Senator 
Sumner : 

Twickenham,  May  5,  1865. 
Dear  Sir:  You  stood  by  the  death-bed  of  the  good  and  noble-hearted  man 
■who  was  torn  from  the  love  and  confidence  of  a  great  nation  on  the  fatal  night 
of  the  I'lth  of  April ;  you  received  the  last  breath  of  one  on  whom  all  the 
friends  of  America  looked  as  the  worthy  representative  of  her  free  institutions. 
You  v/ill,  therefore,  understand  that  after  reading  the  sad  particulars  of  that 
terrible  tragedy,  I  should  feel  anxious  to  confide  to  you  my  deep  emotion  and 


248 

my  bitter  grief.  I  should  not  have  presumed  to  add  my  voice  to  the  unani- 
mous expressions  of  sympathy  offered  by  Europe  to  your  fellow-citizens,  if  my 
personal  relations  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  which  henceforth  will  remain  among  the 
most  precious  recollections  of  my  youth,  had  not  added  something  in  my  eyes 
to  the  magnitude  of  that  public  calamity.  My  brother  and  myself  will  both 
always  gratefully  remember  the  way  which  he  admitted  us  four  years  ago  into 
the  Federal  army,  the  opportunity  he  then  gave  us  to  serve  a  cause  to  which 
we  already  felt  bound  by  our  family  traditions,  our  sympathies  as  Frenchmen, 
and  our  political  creed. 

Those  who  saw  Mr.  Lincoln  during  that  great  ordeal  when  everything  seemed 
to  conspire  against  the  salvation  of  the  republic,  will  never  forget  the  honest 
man  who,  without  personal  ambition,  always  supported  by  a  strong  perception 
of  his  duties,  deserved  to  be  called  emphatically  a  great  citizen.  And  when  the 
dreadful  crisis  during  which  he  presided  over  the  destinies  of  America  will  be- 
long to  history — when  its  bloody  track  will  disappear  under  the  rapid  growth 
of  an  invigorated  nation  and  a  regenerated  community-^people  will  only  re- 
member its  beneficial  results,  the  destruction  of  slavery,  the  preservation  of  free 
institutions,  and  will  ever  associate  with  thera  the  name  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  In 
this  struggle  with  slavery  his  name  will  remain  illustrious  among  those  of  the 
indefatigable  apostles  who  fought  before  him  and  who  will  achieve  his  work- 
But  it  will  also  be  said  of  him  that  he  secured  the  preservation  of  the  Union 
through  a  tremendous  civil  war,  without  ceasing  to  respect  the  authority  of  the 
law  and  the  liberty  of  his  fellow-citizens  ;  that  in  the  hour  of  trial  he  was  the 
Chief  Magistrate  of  a  people  who  knew  how  to  seek  in  the  fullest  use  of  the 
broadest  liberties  the  spring  of  national  endurance  and  energy. 

I  beg  you,  sir,  to  excuse  the  length  of  this  letter  ;  you  know  that  it  is  in- 
spired by  the  feelings  of  my  heart. 

Believe  me,  my  dear  sir,  yours  very  truly, 

LOUIS  PHILIPPE  D'ORLEANS. 
To  Hon.  Charles  Sumnee,  Senator  U.  S. 

The  Empress  Eugenie,  wife  of  Napoleon,  the  Emperor  of 
France,  like  the  Queen  of  England,  also  addressed  a  letter  of 
sympathy  to  Mrs.  Lincoln,  the  wife  of  the  martyred  President 
of  the  United  States.  Thus  the  chain  of  womanly  affections 
binds  in  stronger  bonds  of  sympathy  and  friendship  the 
greatest  empires  of  the  world.  What  beautiful  tributes  to  the 
common  humanity  and  to  the  genius  of  a  common  Christianity. 

In  Nantes,  France,  a  collection  was  made  of  a  penny  sub- 
scription for  the  purchase  of  a  gold  medal,  to  be  presented  to 
Mrs.  Lincoln,  bearing  the  inscription  :  "  Liberty,  Equality,  Fra- 
iernity  !  To  Lincoln,  tivice  elected  President  of  the  United  States, 
French    Democracy   grateful.      Lincoln,  the  holiest  man,  ahoh 


249 

Ulied  slavery,  re-esiahlished  the  Union,  saved  the  Repuhlic,  toith- 
out  veiling  the  statue  of  Liberty.  He  was  assassinated  on  the 
UthofAprU,lSQ5:' 

PRUSSIA. 

The  death  of  President  Lincoln  was  received  with  the  great- 
est concern  by  the  Prussian  Government  and  people.  Herr 
Loewos,  one  of  the  most  active  members  of  the  Lower  House  of 
Deputies,  on  the  reception  of  the  news,  rose  and  said: 

Abraham  Lincoln  has  been  taken  away  in  the  hour  of  triumph.  I  wish  to 
assure  the  German  America.ns,  as  well  as  the  Americans  generally,  that  we 
glory  in  their  glories  and  sorrow  in  their  sorrows.  It  was  the  banner  of  free- 
dom he  carried  aloft.  He  performed  his  duties  without  pomp  or  ceremony,  and 
relied  on  that  dignity  of  his  inner  self  alone  which  is  far  above  rank,  orders, 
and  titles.  He  was  a  faithful  servant,  no  less  of  his  own  commonwealth  than 
of  civilization,  freedom,  and  humanity. 

The  House  rose  in  token  of  assent  to  these  admiring  words 
to  the  memory  of  the  deceased  republican  statesman,  and  an 
address,  signed  by  a  vast  majority  of  the  members,  was  sent  to 
Mr.  Judd,  the  American  Minister.     It  is  as  follows: 

Sir:  We,  the  undersigned,  members  of  the  Prussian  House  of  Deputies,  pray 
your  acceptance  of  our  heartfelt  condolences  on  the  heavy  loss  the  Government 
and  people  of  the  United  States  have  suffered  by  the  death  of  the  late  President 
Lincoln.  We  turn  in  horror  from  the  crime  to  which  he  has  fallen  a  victim, 
and  we  are  the  more  deeply  moved  by  this  public  affliction,  inasmuch  as  it  has 
occurred  at  a  moment  when  we  were  rejoicing  at  the  triumph  of  the  United 
States,  as  it  was  accompanied  by  an  attempt  upon  the  life  of  Mr,  Seward,  the 
faithful  associate  of  his  labors,  who,  with  so  much  wisdom  and  resolve,  aided 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  fulfilment  of  his  arduous  task.  By  the  simultaneous  death 
of  these  great  and  good  men,  the  people  of  the  United  States  were  to  be  de- 
prived of  the  fruits  of  their  protracted  struggle  and  patriotic  devotion,  at  the 
very  moment  when  the  triumph  of  right  and  law  promised  to  bring  back  the 
blessings  of  a  long  desired  peace. 

Sir,  you  have  been  staying  among  us  as  a  living  witness  of  the  deep  and 
earnest  sympathy  which  the  people  of  Germany,  during  the  long  and  serious 
war,  have  entertained  for  the  people  of  the  United  States.  You  are  aware  that 
Germany  has  looked  with  feelings  of  pride  and  joy  at  the  thousands  of  her  sons 
so  resolutely  siding  with  law  and  right  in  this  your  war.  You  have  seen  our 
joy  on  receiving  good  tidings  from  the  United  States,  and  know  the  confidence 
with  which  we  were  looking  forward  to  the  victory  of  your  cause  and  the  re- 
construction of  the  Union  in  all  its  ancient  might  and  splendor.     The  grand 


250 

work  of  reconstruction  will,  we  trust,  not  be  delayed  by  this  terrible  crime. 
The  blood  of  the  great  and  wise  chieftain  will  only  serve  to  cement  the  Union 
for  which  he  died.  To  us  this  is  guaranteed  by  the  respect  of  the  law  and  the 
love  of  liberty  which  the  people  of  the  United  States  evince  in  the  very  midst 
of  this  tremendous  contest. 

We  request  your  good  offices  for  giving  expression  to  our  condolences  and  our 
sympathies  with  the  people  and  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  commu- 
nicating this  address  to  the  Cabinet  you  represent. 

Heceive  &c 

THE  MEMBERS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  DEPUTIES. 

Berlin,  April  28. 

The  following  is  a  translation  of  the  official  note  addressed 
by  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  of  his  Prussian  Majesty  to 
Mr.  Judd,  the  Minister  of  tlie  United  States  at  Berlin,  relative 
to  the  murder  of  President  Lincoln  and  the  attempted  assas- 
sination of  Secretary  Seward: 

Beelin,  April  27,  1865. 

The  Royal  Government  is  deeply  grieved  by  the  news  received  by  the  mail 
yesterday,  of  the  murder  of  President  Lincoln  and  the  simultaneous  attempt  on 
the  life  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Seward. 

In  consequence  of  the  so  happily  established  friendly  relations  between  Prus- 
sia and  the  United  States,  it  falls  upon  the  undersigned  to  announce  to  that 
Government  the  sincere  sympathy  of  the  Royal  Government  in  the  heavy  be- 
reavement which  has  been  inflicted  by  this  crime,  and  therefore  respectfully 
request  Mr.  Judd  to  transmit  the  expressions  of  this  sentiment  to  his  Govern- 
ment. 

The  undersigned  has  the  honor,  &c. 

BISMARK. 
Hon.  Mr.  Judd,  &c. 

In  Berlin,  the  capital  of  Prussia,  May  2d,  18G5,  was  held  a 
very  remarkable  service  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  The 
clergy  of  the  city  tendered  their  churches  for  the  solemn  cere- 
monies, and  one  of  the  largest  and  most  attractive  edifices  was 
selected.  The  altar,  on  which  two  candles  were  burninnr,  was 
veiled  in  black  drapery.  The  pulpit,  and  the  galleries  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  altar,  were  likewise  covered  in  black. 
Over  the  pulpit  hung  two  large  silk  American  flags,  from  the 
tips  of  the  stars  of  which  depended  black  crape  streamers.  On 
the  desks  in  all  the  pews  lay  programmes  of  the  ceremony, 
containing  tlie  texts  of  the  hymns  and  antliems  to  be  sung,  and 
printed  on  mourning  paper.     In  the  front  pews  on  the  south 


251 

side  of  the  main  aisle  sat  the  chiefs  of  almost  the  whole  of  the 
diplomatic  corps  in  Berlin,  including  Lord  Napier,  the  British 
ambassador,  formerly  British  minister  in  Washington;  M.  Bene- 
detti,  the  French  ambassador;  Count  Karolyi,  the  Austrian 
ambassador;  and  the  ministers  of  Russia,  Sweden,  Italy,  Tur- 
key, Greece,  Saxony,  Hanover,  &c.  Next  to  these  came  the 
deputies  of  the  Lower  Chamber,  the  municipal  councillors  of 
Berlin,  and  many  men  distinguished  in  literature  and  politics. 
On  the  north  side  of  the  aisle  sat  the  Americans,  most  of  them 
attired  in  mourning.  The  English  community  was  well  repre- 
sented. 

After  some  minutes  Mr.  Judd,  the  American  ambassador,  and 
his  family,  together  with  Mr.  Kreismann,  the  Secretary  of  Le- 
gation, all  wearing  the  deepest  mourning,  arrived  and  took 
their  seats  in  front  of  the  altar.  A  few  moments  later  a  gen- 
eral movement  in  the  assembly  indicated  the  arrival  of  Herr 
Von  Bismark,  in  company  with  General  Yon  Boyen,  which 
two  gentlemen  had  been  deputed  by  the  King  to  represent  his 
Majesty  at  the  ceremony. 

After  a  lesson  and  prayer  had  been  delivered,  the  choir  sang 
the  beautiful  anthem  :  "  Sei  getren  bis  in  den  TodJ'^  The  Rev. 
Dr.  Tappan,  of  New  York,  then  delivered  a  powerful  funeral 
oration  on  the  deceased  President  Lincoln,  whose  foul  assassi- 
nation has  filled  the  whole  civilized  world  with  horror.  The 
singing  of  a  chorale  by  the  whole  congregation,  and  a  benedic- 
tion spoken  by  Pastor  Yater,  brought  to  a  close  the  proceed- 
ings of  t'.iis  most  remarkable  religious  demonstration,  which 
will  long  live  in  the  memories  of  many  of  the  citizens  of  Berlin. 

There  were  more  than  two  thousand  people  present  in  the 
church. 

RUSSIA. 

Mr.  De  Stoeckl,  the  Russian  Minister  to  the  United  States, 

presented   to  President    Johnson  the  instructions   of    Prince 

Gortchacow,  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  at  St.  Petersburg, 

of  which  the  subjoined  is  a  translation: 

St.  Petersburg,  April  16,  1865. 
Sir:  The  telegraph  has  brought  us  the  news  of  the  double  crime  of  which 
the  President  of  the  United  States  has  fallen  a  victim  and  Mr.  Seward  barely 
escaped 


252 

The  blow  which  has  struck  Mr.  Lincoln  at  the  very  moment  when  he  seemed 
about  to  harvest  the  fruits  of  his  energy  and  perseverance,  has  been  deeply  felt 
in  Russia.  • 

Because  of  the  absence  of  the  Emperor,  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  receive  and 
to  transmit  to  you  the  expression  of  the  sentiments  of  his  Imperial  Majesty. 
Being  acquainted,  nevertheless,  with  those  which  our  august  master  entertains 
toward  the  United  States  of  America,  it  is  easy  for  me  to  realize  in  advance  the 
impression  which  the  news  of  this  odious  crime  will  cause  his  Imperial  Majesty 
to  experience. 

I  have  hastened  to  testify  to  General  Clay  the  earnest  and  cordial  sympathy 
of  the  Imperial  Cabinet  with  the  Federal  Government. 

Please  to  express  this  in  the  warmest  terms  to  President  Johnson,  adding 
thereunto  our  most  sincere  wishes  that  this  new  and  grievous  trial  may  not 
impede  the  onward  march  of  the  American  people  toward  the  re-establishment 
of  the  Union  and  of  that  concord  which  are  the  sources  of  its  power  and  of  its 
prosperity. 

Receive,  sir,  the  assurance  of  my  very  distinguished  consideration. 

GORTCHACOW. 

His  Excellency  Mr.  Sxoeckl. 

BELGIUM. 

The  King  of  the  Belgians  charged  one  of  his  aids-de-camp 
to  visit  Mr.  Sanford  and  express  the  feelings  his  Majesty 
had  experienced  at  the  attacks  made  upon  the  President  and 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  United  States.  The  Count 
of  Flanders  also  sent  one  of  his  orderly  officers  to  the  Ameri- 
can Minister  for  the  same  purpose.  The  Minister  for  Foreign 
Affairs  and  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet  have  also  lost  no 
time  in  paying  their  respects  to  Mr.  Sanford.  and  instructions 
have  been  forwarded  to  the  Belgian  legation  at  "Washington  to 
express  to  the  American  Government  the  sentiments  of  regret 
and  reprobation  excited  by  such  disgraceful  acts.  At  Satur- 
day's sitting  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  M.  le  Hardy  de  Beau- 
lieu  stated  in  the  most  sympathizing  terms  the  emotion  pro- 
duced in  Belgium  by  the  news  of  the  tragic  event,  and  recalled 
all  the  claims  of  President  Lincoln  to  general  consideration. 
M.  de  Haerne  spoke  in  the  same  sense,  with  much  feeling.  The 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  said  that  the  Government  fully 
agreed  with  the  sentiments  which  had  just  been  expressed,  and 
tliat  it  had  already  conveyed  its  opinion  to  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  and  their  representatives  at  Brussels.  He 
added  his  sincerest  good  wislies  for  the  recovery  of  Mr.  Sew- 


253 

ard,  whose  life  he  considered  highly  important  for  the  definite 
pacification  of  the  country  so  long  desolated  by  the  war,  and 
whose  prosperity  was  earnestly  desired  by  all  the  friends  of 
liberty. 

AUSTRIA. 

Addresses  of  condolence  to  the  American  people  have  passed 
the  lower  house  of  the  Austrian  Reichsrath  unanimously,  and 
the  Austrian  Government  forwarded  an  address 

THE    HANSEATIC    REPUBLICS. 

Mr.  A.  Schumacher,  the  Charge  d'Affaires  of  the  Hanseatic 
Republics,  paid  an  official  visit  to  President  Johnson,  to  assure 
him  in  their  behalf  of  the  universal  sorrow  and  sympathy  felt 
for  the  American  nation,  that  the  career  of  their  beloved  Presi- 
dent, Abraham  Lincoln,  should  have  been  cut  ofi"  so  suddenly. 
At  the  close  of  his  remarks,  Mr.  Schumacher  handed  to  the 
President  a  letter  from  the  Senate  of  Bremen,  giving  expres- 
sion to  these  sentiments.     We  subjoin  it : 

The  appalling  news  of  the  atrocious  deed  which  brought  to  so  sudden  an  end 
the  life  and  labors  of  President  Lincoln,  has  caused  horror  and  indignation 
wherever  it  has  gone,  but  perhaps  nowhere  in  a  higher  degree  than  in  our  city, 
whose  citizens  have,  ever  since  the  first  foundation  of  the  American  Union, 
maintained  with  its  people  uninterrupted  friendly  relations  of  commerce  and 
personal  intercourse,  and  which,  at  the  present  time,  has  more  numerous  con- 
nections, comparatively,  with  the  great  transatlantic  Eepublic  than  any  other 
State  of  the  European  continent. 

Indeed,  the  loss  which  the  Government  and  the  people  of  the  United  States 
have  sustained  by  the  hand  of  a  fanatical  assassin  is  felt  the  same  as  a  public 
calamity  in  our  midst,  and  it  is  this  universal  sentiment  of  deep  sorrow  and 
indignation  which  prompts  us,  the  Representatives  of  the  Bremen  Republic,  to 
express  to  your  Excellency,  as  the  successor  of  President  Lincoln,  the  feelings 
of  hearty  sympathy  with  which  we,  in  common  with  all  our  citizens,  regard 
this  severe  visitation  upon  your  country. 

May  an  Almighty  God,  who,  in  His  inscrutable  providence,  has  permitted  the 
commission  of  this  awful  crime,  avert  a  similar  calamity  from  the  United  States 
in  all  future  time,  and  may  He  by  His  richest  blessings  heal  the  wounds  from 
which  the  Union  is  suffering,  and  crown  by  an  early  peace  the  patriotic  labors 
in  which  Abraham  Lincoln  has  died  as  a  martyr. 

We  avail  ourselves  of  this  mournful  occasion  to  commend  ourselves,  and  the 
Republic  which  we  have  the  honor  of  representing,  to  the  friendly  considera- 


254 

tion  of  your  Excellency,  and  to  express  to  joVL  our  sentiments  of  distinguislied 
esteem  and  regard. 

J.  D.  MEIER, 

President  of  the  Senate. 
Senate  of  the  Free  Hanseatic  City  of  Bremen. 

His  Excellency  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  North  America,  Wash- 
ington, D.  Q. 

ITALY. 

The  Italian  Chamber  of  Deputies  was  draped  in  black  in 
mourning  for  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  Minister  of  Finance 
moved,  and  the  Chamber  agreed,  to  send  an  address  to  the 
American  Congress  expressing  the  grief  of  the  country  and  the 
House  at  Mr.  Lincoln's  assassination.     It  is  as  follows  : 

To   the  President  of  the    Congress  of  Representatives  of  the   United  States  in 
A?7ierica  : 

Hon.  Sir  :  The  intelligence  of  the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln  has 
moved  and  profoundly  grieved  the  Deputies  of  the  Italian  Parliament.  From 
all  the  political  factions  of  which  the  Chamber  is  composed,  one  unanimous  cry 
has  arisen,  denouncing  the  detestable  crime  that  has  been  committed,  and  con- 
veying the  expression  of  deep  regret  and  sympathy  for  the  illustrious  victim 
and  the  free  people  whose  worthy  ruler  he  was.  This  Chamber  has  unani- 
mously resolved  to  cover  its  flag  with  crape  for  the  space  of  three  days,  in 
token  of  mourning,  and  has  charged  me  to  notify  to  you,  in  a  special  message, 
its  grief,  which  is  also  that  of  Italy  and  of  all  friends  of  liberty  and  civilization. 
The  news  of  the  attempt  made  to  assassinate  Mr.  Seward  has  inspired  the  Cham- 
ber with  like  sentiments.  lu  readily,  though  sadly,  fulfiling  the  mission  with 
which  I  have  been  charged,  I  beg  you  will  accept,  Hon.  Sir,  the  assurance  of 
my  sympathy  and  consideration, 

CASSINIS, 
President  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies. 

TURKEY. 

On  Sunday,  the  30th  of  April,  the  Greeks  and  Italian  work- 
ingmcn,  to  the  number  of  several  hundred,  repaired  in  solemn 
procession  to  the  residence  of  the  American  Minister  to  Tur- 
key, E.  Joy  Morris,  all  wearing  badges  of  mourning,  to  express 
their  sympathy  on  the  death  of  President  Lincoln.  The  com- 
mittee read  a  beautiful  address,  and  presenied  the  American 
Minister  with  a  framed  portrait  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  crowned  with 
laurel  and  decorated  with  tlic  American  and  Greek  flags. 
One  of  the  most   distinguished    Greek  lawyers  subsequently 


25 


r 


delivered  an  address  in  Greeli,  whicli  was  rapturously  ap- 
plauded and  full  of  grateful  allusion  to  the  United  States 
and  the  memory  of  Lincoln.  The  love  of  these  people  for 
America,  and  their  affectionate  appreciation  of  the  services 
of  one  of  her  greatest  benefactors,  touches  one's  heart  to  the 
core.  It  demonstrates  what  a  strong  hold  the  United  States 
Government  has  upon  the  affections  of  the  mighty  nations. 
To  these  enthusiastic  and  affectionate  demonstrations  Min- 
ister Morris  replied  as  follows : 

Hellenic  GreeJcs  of  Constantinople :  I  receive  with  mingled  emotions  of  grief 
and  pleasure  this  imposing  manifestation  of  the  sentiments  of  the  Hellenes  of 
Constantinople  toward  my  country  and  its  illustrious  chief,  the  late  President 
Lincoln. 

I  rejoice  that  the  character  and  actions  of  that  great  man  are  so  justly  ap- 
preciated and  so  affectionately  revered  by  the  intelligent  community  you  rep- 
resent. It  is  another  proof  that  the  Greek  people  are  faithful  to  the  traditions 
of  their  history ;  that  the  same  love  of  liberty  which  distinguished  them  in  an- 
tiquity still  exists,  and  that  everywhere  where  there  is  a  struggle  between  the 
spirit  of  liberty  and  despotism,  their  suffrages  are  on  the  side  of  those  who  are 
the  champions  of  the  natural  rights  of  man.  It  is  from  your  ancestors  that  we 
have  inherited  our  passion  for  liberty.  The  example  of  Leonidas  with  his 
three  hundred  Spartans  falling  willing  victims  for  the  safety  of  their  country  at 
Thermopylse,  of  Miltiades  and  Themistocles  on  the  plains  of  Marathon  and  the 
waters  of  Salamis,  repelling  the  invaders  of  Greece,  not  by  the  force  of  numbers, 
but  by  the  force  of  an  invincible  courage,  is  taught  in  our  schools  as  a  sublime 
lesson  of  love  of  country. 

Honor  to  a  people  who,  after  the  lapse  of  tweaty-five  centuries,  yet  preserve 
in  their  hearts  that  sacred  fire  v/hich  made  their  ancient  heroes  immortal ! 

The  terrible  struggle  which  is  about  terminating  in  the  United  States  was  a 
conflict  between  the  two  opposing  principles  of  liberty  and  slavery.  To  promote 
the  interests  of  the  latter,  an  attempt  was  made  to  destroy  the  American  Union, 
and  to  erect  on  its  ruins  a  government  the  corner-stone  of  which  was  to  be  hu- 
man slavery.  By  the  favor  of  Divine  Providence  the  man  most  capable  of 
meeting  such  a  crisis  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  nation. 

He  was  a  man  of  unblemished  purity  of  life,  and  of  unspotted  integrity,  and 
he  loved  his  race  and  country  with  equal  affection.  In  defending  tlie  Constitu- 
tion he  knew  that  he  was  defending  an  instrument  of  government  in  the  main- 
tenance of  which  all  mankind  have  a  common  interest  with  us.  lie  compre- 
hended, in  its  fullest  proportions,  the  great  part  which  God  had  given  him  to 
perform,  and  before  heaven  and  earth  he  proved  that  he  was  equal  to  the  duty 
assigned  him. 

At  tlie  moment  when  the  shouts  of  victory  were  rising  from  the  fields  of  bat- 
tle, and  when  tlie  flag  of  freedom  was  again  being  raised  over  the  i'orts  and 
towns  from  wliich  it  had  been  sacrilegiously  lorn  down  four  jears  :igo,  lie  fdl 


256 

beneath  the  murderous  arm  of  an  assassin.  Fearful  crime  to  kill  such  a  man! 
Supreme  folly  to  choose  such  a  moment  for  such  an  infamous  deed !  He  had 
accomplished  his  mission,  he  had  saved  his  country,  and  had  gained  a  place  in 
the  temple  of  glory,  where  he  will  always  be  honored  as  one  of  the  greatest 
benefactors  of  humanity.  The  assassins  of  liberty  and  of  its  champions  merit 
and  receive  an  eternal  execration  in  history. 

The  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Seward,  who  had  so  ably  seconded  the  efforts  of 
President  Lincoln,  and  who,  by  his  diplomatic  writings,  had  most  wisely  repre- 
sented the  nation  to  foreign  countries,  was  also  destined  to  be  a  victim.  We 
implore  an  All-merciful  God  that  his  life  may  be  spared,  that  he  may  contribute 
by  his  sagacious  intellect  to  the  consolidation  of  the  republic,  which  is  now 
rising  majestically,  unimpaired  in  strength  and  unchanged  in  form,  from  a  hun- 
dred fields  of  battle. 

In  the  name  of  the  American  people,  Hellenic  Greeks,  I  thank  you  for  this 
generous  demonstration  of  regard  for  my  country  and  her  saviour,  and  for  your 
wishes  that  the  Republic  of  the  United  States  of  America  may  continue  to  exist 
in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  the  boulevard  of  modern  liberty  and  the  pioneer  of 
human  progress. 

Adieu,  Hellenes !  and  may  the  Greek  and  American  flags,  which  float  united 
above  our  heads,  be  a  symbol  of  that  fraternity  of  heart  which  exists  between 
two  people  of  the  same  sympathies  and  the  same  aspirations  I 


MEETINGS  OF  AMERICANS  IN  FOREIGN 

COUNTRIES. 


LONDON. 


On  the  1st  day  of  May,  1865,  the  Americans  in  London  held, 
in  St.  James's  Hall,  a  meeting  to  give  expression  to  their  feel- 
ings in  relation  to  the  untimely  death  of  the  late  President 
Lincoln.  A  large  number  were  Englishmen,  who  desired  to 
testify  their  sympathy  and  regard.  The  chair  was  taken  by 
Hon.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Minister  of  the  United  States. 
Among  the  distinguished  gentlemen  present  were  Lord  Hough- 
ton, Cyrus  W.  Field,  Mr.  Morse,  Consul  of  the  United  States; 
Mr.  Ward,  New  York;  Rev.  J,  Shaw,  Boston;  Rev.  H.  M. 
Storrs,  Cincinnati;  Mr.  G.  Ralton,  Consul  General  of  Siberia; 
Mr.  J.  Holmes  Goodenow,  Consul  at  Constantinople,  and 
others.  Minister  Adams  made  an  eloquent  address,  in  which 
he  said: 

The  man  who  has  fallen  was  immolated  for  no  act  of  his  own.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  in  the  whole  course  of  his  career  he  ever  made  a  single 
personal  enemy.  *  *  *  It  was  because  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  faithful 
exponent  of  the  sentiments  of  the  whole  people  that  he  was  stricken  down. 
The  blow  that  was  aimed  at  him  was  meant  to  fall  upon  them.  It  was  a 
fancied  short  way  of  paralyzing  the  Government  which  we  have  striven  so  hard 
to  maintain.  It  was  for  our  cause  that  Abraham  Lincoln  died,  and  not  his 
own.  *  *  *  Let  us,  then,  casting  aside  all  needless  apprehension  for  the 
policy  of  our  land,  concentrate  our  thoughts  upon  the  magnitude  of  the  offence 
which  has  deprived  us  of  our  beloved  chief  in  the  very  moment  of  most  interest 
to  our  cause ;  and  let  us  draw  together  as  one  man  in  the  tribute  of  our  admira- 
tion of  one  of  the  purest,  the  most  single-minded  and  noble-hearted  patriots 
that  ever  ruled  over  the  people  of  any  land. 

17  257 


258 

A  series  of  resolutions  were  adopted,  among  which  was  the 
following: 

Resolved,  That  as  loyal  Americans,  we  have  witnessed  with  peculiar  pleasure 
the  expressions  of  indignation  and  sorrow  throughout  Great  Britain  at  the 
assassination  of  President  Lincoln,  and  the  cordial  and  hearty  sympathy  which 
has  been  extended  by  the  public  of  this  realm  to  the  Government  and  people  of 
the  United  States  in  their  great  bereavement  and  public  calamity.^ 

ROME. 

Upon  the  receipt  of  the  intelligence  in  Rome  of  the  assas- 
sination of  President  Lincoln,  a  meeting  of  Americans  was 
summoned  at  the  rooms  of  the  United  States  Legation.  The 
meeting,  held  on  the  28th  day  of  April,  and  largely  attended 
by  American  artists,  sojourners,  and  visitors,  was  called  to  or- 
der by  H.  G.  De  Forest,  Esq.,  of  New  York  ;  on  whose  motion 
the  Rev.  Edward  S.  Lacy,  of  San  Francisco,  California,  was 
called  to  the  cliair. 

The  proceedings  were  opened  with  prayer  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Lacy. 

A  committee  consisting  of  General  Rufus  King,  United 
States  Minister;  Mr.  H.  G.  De  Forest,  Mr.  W.  W.  Story,  Rev. 
Dr.  Lyman,  and  Judge  Charles  V.  Dyer,  was  appointed.  Du- 
ring the  absence  of  the  committee  the  meeting  was  ably  and 
eloquently  addressed  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Van  Nest,  of  New  York; 
Rev.  Dr.  J.  C.  Stockbridge,  of  Boston;  Dr.  H.  A.  Johnson,  of 
Chicago;  Mr.  Stansfeld  of  St.  Louis;  Mr.  Stillman,  United 
States  Consul  at  Rome;  George  D.  Phelps,  of  New  l^'ork,  and 
other  gentlemen. 

The  committee,  through  their  chairman,  General  King,  sub- 
mitted resolutions,  among  which  were  the  following  : 

Resolved,  That  in  common  with  every  true-hearted  American,  at  home  and 
abroad,  we  regard  the  loss  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  a  national  bereavement  of 
unsurpassed  magnitude,  recognizing  in  him  an  able,  upright,  zealous,  and  con- 
scientious statesman,  whose  valuable  life  was  consecrated  to  the  public  service, 
and  whose  tragic  death  has  added  the  crown  of  martyrdom  to  the  civic  wreath 
which  a  grateful  country  had  already  placed  upon  his  brow. 

Resolved,  That  we  devoutly  hope  to  be  spared  the  additional  affliction  of  be- 
ing called  upon  to  mourn  the  loss  of  the  great  Senator  whose  able  administra- 
tion of  the  Department  of  State  during  the  trying  ordeal  of  the  past  four  yeara 


259 

had  won  for  him  the  proud  confidence  and  affectionate  regards  of  his  country- 
men, and  the  admiration  of  the  civilized  world;  and  that  we  humbly  and  hope- 
fully invoke  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  the  Universe  to  preserve  a  life  so  precious 
to  America  and  to  mankind. 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  immediate  relatives  of  the  lamented  victims 
of  this  fiendish  conspiracy  and  crime  our  most  heartfelt  and  respectful  sympa- 
thy in  their  overwhelming  sorrow.  May  the  God  of  the  widow  and  the  father- 
less bind  up  their  broken  and  bleeding  hearts  ;  and  to  his  overruling  care  do 
we  trustingly  commit  our  beloved  country  in  this  hour  of  her  extreme  and 
sore  trouble. 

Resolved,  That  in  token  of  our  respect  for  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  dead, 
we  will  wear  the  customary  badge  of  mourning  for  a  period  of  thirty  days  ; 
and  that  the  chaplain  to  the  legation  be  requested  to  hold  a  special  religious 
service  at  some  convenient  hour  to-morrow. 

Resolved,  That  copies  of  tlaese  resolutions,  attested  by  the  signatures  of  the 
chairman  and  secretary,  be  transmitted  to  the  State  Department,  to  the  family 
of  our  late  President,  and  for  publication. 

PARIS. 

On  the  reception  of  the  news  of  the  assassination  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  in  Paris,  France,  the  Americans  in  that  city  were 
convened  to  express  their  sorrow  at  the  great  calamity  which 
had  fallen  so  suddenly  upon  their  nation.  At  the  suggestion 
of  Rev.  Mr.  Lamson,  a  commemorative  service  was  held  at  the 
American  Protestant  Episcopal  Chapel  on  Saturday,  the  29tli 
of  April,  1865,  to  which  a  sort  of  semi-official  character  was 
given  by  the  presence  of  an  aid-de-camp  of  Prince  Napoleon, 
and  by  the  draping  of  the  church  in  American  flags  with  crape 
streamers.  This  service  was  conducted  by  Rev.  Mr.  Lamson, 
assisted  by  Rev.  Mr.  Swale,  assistant  chaplain  of  the  British 
embassy.  Nearly  all  of  the  congregation  of  the  American 
chapel  was  present,  but  its  pastor  (the  Rev.  Dr.  Sunderland)  was 
entirely  unable  to  take  part  in  the  ceremonies  at  so  early  a  pe- 
riod after  the  arrival  of  the  afflicting  intelligence.  The  Rev. 
Doctor  found  himself  wholly  unequal  to  the  task  of  a  public 
demonstration.  He  was  a  personal  friend  of  the  late  Presi- 
dent, and  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  at  Wash- 
ington City,  and  for  several  years  Chaplain  of  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States.  He  was  in  his  pulpit,  and  elsewhere,  the 
outspoken  and  fearless  champion  of  the  Government  and  its 


260 

righteous  cause,  during  the  great  rebellion,  and  contributed 
largely  to  those  patriotic  and  religious  agencies  and  influences 
which  preserved  the  life  and  nationality  of  the  Great  Re- 
public. 

The  feeling  shown  on  the  following  day  (Sunday)  in  the 
American  Chapel  was  far  more  touching  than  any  formal  mani- 
festation of  respect.  Dr.  Sunderland,  the  pastor,  by  a  violent 
effort  of  self-control,  read  the  service  ;  but  when  he  came  to 
the  prayer  for  the  President  of  the  United  States — a  different 
President  from  the  one  prayed  for  only  a  short  week  before — 
his  voice  broke  down,  and  nearly  every  one  in  the  little  chapel 
in  a  foreign  city  shed  tears — some  sobbing  outright.  The  Doctor 
finished  the  service  with  trembling  accents,  and  resigned  his 
place  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Palmer,  of  Albany,  who  preached  an  ad- 
mirable sermon,  which  had  the  effect  of  calming  the  troubled 
spirits  of  grief-stricken  people.  In  this  service  was  the  ab- 
sence of  the  exultant  hymns  of  praise  which  are  usually  sung 
during  the  taking  up  of  the  collection  in  the  chapel,  and  which 
for  the  past  two  Sundays  after  the  news  of  the  glorious  victo- 
ries were  veritable  songs  of  triumph. 

A  meeting  was  held  at  the  United  States  Legation,  to  con- 
cert upon  some  plan  for  publicly  manifesting  sympathy  with 
their  beloved  country.  Between  seventy-five  and  a  hundred 
American  gentlemen  were  present.  Mr.  Bigelow  was  unani- 
mously named  president.  Mr.  Slade,  United  States  Consul  at 
Nice,  was  appointed  Secretary.  The  meeting  was  first  ad- 
dressed by  the  Hon.  Mr.  Fogg,  our  Minister  to  Switzerland, 
who,  being  an  intimate  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln's,  was 
several  times  entirely  overcome  by  his  feelings,  and  sobbed 
aloud.  He  started  from  Berne  to  come  up  to  Paris  to  rejoice 
with  his  fellow-countrymen  in  view  of  peace,  which  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's wise  course  had  led  us  to  suppose  was  near  at  hand, 
and  was  met  by  tlie  cruel  blow  which  has  so  fearfully  smitten 
the  nation.  Several  other  gentlemen  spoke,  and  the  meeting, 
which  was  an  occasion  for  mutual  expression  of  sympathy,  re- 
sulted in  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of  nine  gentlemen, 
wlio  were  charged  with  the  preparation  of  a  suitable  address 
to  President  Johnson. 


261 


NATIONAL  THANKSGIVING  TURNED   INTO  NATIONAL  HUMILIATION. 

President  Lincoln,  on  the  evening  of  the  11th  of  April,  1865, 
said  to  his  countrymen  assembled  at  the  Executive  Mansion, 
"  We  meet  this  evening  not  in  sorrow  but  in  gladness  of  heart. 
The  evacuation  of  Petersburg  and  Richmond,  and  the  surrender 
of  the  principal  insurgent  army,  give  hope  of  a  righteous  and 
speedy  peace,  whose  joyous  expression  cannot  be  restrained. 
In  the  midst  of  this,  however.  He  from  whom  all  blessings  flow 
must  not  be  forgotten.  A  call  for  a  national  thanksgiving  is 
being  prepared  and  will  be  duly  promulgated." 

That  proclamation  was  never  issued.  He  whose  heart  was 
full  of  joy  in  the  prospect  of  peace,  and  who  was  about  to  invite 
his  countrymen  to  meet  for  devout  thanksgiving  to  Almighty 
God  for  so  great  a  blessing  and  the  victories  which  had  con- 
quered it,  was  smitten  in  death  by  the  assassin,  and  the  nation 
was  bowed  in  deepest  mourning.  President  Johnson,  in  view  of 
the  national  affliction,  issued  the  following  proclamation  : 

BY   THE   PRESIDENT   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES   OP   AMERICA  : 

A  PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas,  by  my  direction,  the  Acting  Secretary  of  State,  in  a  notice  to  the 
public  of  the  seventeenth,  requested  the  various  religious  denominations  to  aa- 
Bemble  on  the  nineteenth  instant,  on  the  occasion  of  the  obsequies  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  late  President  of  the  United  States,  and  to  observe  the  same  with  ap- 
propriate ceremonies;  but  whereas  our  country  has  become  one  great  house  of 
mourning,  where  the  head  of  the  family  has  been  taken  away ;  and  believing 
that  a  special  period  should  be  assigned  for  again  humiliating  ourselves  before 
Almighty  God,  in  order  that  the  bereavement  may  be  sanctified  to  the  nation : 

Now,  therefore,  in  order  to  mitigate  that  grief  on  earth  which  can  only  be 
assuaged  by  communion  with  the  Father  in  Heaven,  and  in  compliance  with 
the  wishes  of  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress,  communicated  to  me 
by  resolutions  adopted  at  the  National  Capitol,  I,  Andrew  Johnson,  President 
of  the  United  States,  do  hereby  appoint  Thursday,  the  twenty-fifth  day  of  May 
next,  to  be  observed,  wherever  in  the  United  States  the  flag  of  the  country  may 
be  respected,  as  a  day  of  humiliation  and  mourning;  and  I  recommend  my 
fellow-citizens  then  to  assemble  in  their  respective  places  of  worship,  there  to 
unite  in  solemn  service  to  Almighty  God,  in  memory  of  the  good  man  who  has 
been  removed,  so  that  all  shall  be  occupied  at  the  same  time  in  contemplation 
of  his  virtues,  and  in  sorrow  for  his  sudden  and  violent  end. 


262 

la  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal  of  tlxe 
United  States  to  be  a£Bxed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington  the  twenty-fifth  day  of  April,  in  the  year  of 
[l.  s.]  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-five,  and  of  the  Inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States  of  America  the  eigbty-ninth. 

ANDREW  JOHNSON. 

The  day,  by  special  proclamation,  was  changed  to  the  first 
Thursday  of  June,  because  the  day  aforesaid  was  sacred  to  a 
large  number  of  Christians  as  one  of  rejoicing  for  the  ascension 
of  the  Saviour. 

The  day  was  universally  observed,  and  tliese  "  solemn 
religious  services  to  Almighty  God  in  memory  of  the  good  man 
who  had  been  removed  "  resulted  in  the  richest  blessings  to  the 
nation.  The  memorable  events  that  immediately  preceded  the 
President's  assassination,  the  Sabbath  that  succeeded  the  day 
on  which  his  obsequies  were  performed  in  Washington,  the 
rites  and  honors  his  remains  received  on  their  way  to  his  final 
resting  place,  and  the  religious  services  around  the  tomb  at 
Springfield,  were  consecrated  days  of  patriotism  and  piety. 
They  eminently  developed  the  Christian  element  of  our  Govern- 
ment and  people,  as  well  as  commemorated  the  virtues  and 
public  services  of  our  departed  President. 

When  tidings  came  of  the  capture  of  Richmond  and  the  dis- 
persion of  Lee's  army,  the  popular  rejoicing  found  its  appro- 
priate vent  in  acts  of  praise  to  Almighty  God.  The  decora- 
tions of  public  buildings  and  of  private  houses,  the  orders  of 
the  War  Department  and  the  proclamations  of  the  civil 
authorities,  the  editorials  of  political  journals,  and  the  resolu- 
tions of  mass  assemblies  of  citizens — all  expressed  the  religious 
feeling  of  the  nation  in  view  of  the  manifest  interposition  of 
Providence  for  our  deliverance. 

And  when  our  sudden  and  crushing  sorrow  came,  with  one 
accord  the  people  resorted  to  the  house  of  God  for  relief  and 
consolation  in  religious  worship.  Day  after  day  the  churches 
were  thronged  with  serious  assemblies.  Day  after  day  was 
God  honored  by  the  humiliations  and  the  supplications  of  mil- 
lions throughout  the  land.  And  the  long  mournful  procession, 
with  the  remains  of  President  Lincoln,  from  Washington  to 
Springfield,  was  not  a  mere  funeral  pageant,  but  one  prolonged 


263 

religious  service,  in  which  Jews  and  Papists  united  with 
Protestants  of  every  name  in  acknowledging  the  hand  of  God. 

The  religious  sentiment  is  thoroughly  woven  into  the 
character  of  the  American  people;  and  herein  we  have  a  noble 
encouragement  from  past  religious  labors  and  teachings,  and  a 
grand  hope  for  the  future. 

President  Lincoln  cherished  in  his  inner  life,  and  developed 
in  his  official  acts  and  public  efforts,  the  desire  and  purpose  to 
diffuse  and  strengthen  the  religious  element  in  all  departments 
of  the  Government,  and  to  bring  all  the  interests  of  the  nation 
under  its  controlling  influence.  To  a  great  benevolent  organ- 
ization, laboring  for  the  religious  good  of  our  noble  soldiers, 
he  said,  "  You  may  have  everything,  and  command  the  Adminis- 
tration to  the  extent  of  its  ability  and  means,  to  help  you  take 
care  of  the  religious  interests  of  the  army.^'  To  another  he  said  : 
"  Whatever  shall  be  sincerely  and  in  God's  name  desired  for  the 
good  of  the  soldiers  and  seamen  in  their  hard,  spheres  of  duty 
can  scarcely  fail  to  be  blessed  /"  and,  "  whatever  shall  tend  es- 
pecially to  strengthen  our  reliance  on  the  Supreme  Being  for  the 
final  triumph  of  7-ight  cannot  but  be  ivell  for  tis."  He  also  pro- 
nounced, in  a  letter  to  one  of  these  Christian  societies,  this 
great,  political,  and  Christian  axiom  which  has  so  sublime  a 
development  in  our  national  history :    "  Religion  and  good 

GOVERNMENT   ARE   SWORN   ALLIES  !" 

God  buries  His  workmen,  but  their  work  goes  on.  The 
death  of  martyrs  to  trutli  is  but  the  day  of  their  coronation, 
and  their  graves  the  fruitful  earth  from  which  blossom  into 
fuller  and  riper  forms  the  more  abundant  fruits  of  freedom  ; 
and  their  translation  to  higher  and  nobler  fields  of  effort  is  but 
the  hour  for  surviving  associates  to  renew  their  consecration  to 
the  imperishable  principles  for  which  they  lived  and  for  the 
vindication  and  triumph  of  which  they  died. 

Thus  is  it  and  thus  shall  it  be  with  the  death  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  the  martyred  President  of  the  United  States  I  He  is 
dead,  but  the  principles  of  freedom  and  right  wliich  he  pro- 
claimed and  vindicated  still  live,  and  are  marching  on  to  a 
grand  and  perfect  fulfilment.  As  the  mourning  millions  of  iiis 
countrymen  shall  review  his  life  and  contemplate  his  death, 


264 

or  gather  round  his  tomb,  they  will  hear  the  echo  of  his  words, 
spoken  when  he  stood  on  the  autumnal  day  of  November  the 
19th,  1863,  over  the  graves  of  our  martyred  heroes,  on  that 
great  battle-field  of  freedom,  at  Gettysburg  :  "  It  is  for  us  to  be 
dedicated  hero  to  the  unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought 
here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  for  us  to  be  here 
dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us,  that  from  these 
honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for 
which  they  gave  the  last  measure  of  devotion ;  that  we  here 
highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain  ;  that 
this  nation  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom,  and  that  govern- 
ment of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth  ;"  and  those  other  words,  uttered  at  the 
first  hour,  almost,  of  the  great  conflict,  to  the  national  Con- 
gress :  "  Having  chosen  our  course  without  guile  and  with  pure 
purpose,  let  us  renew  our  trust  in  God,  and  go  forward  without 
fear,  and  with  manly  hearts,  in  the  great  task  which  events  have 
devolved  upon  us." 
Abraham  Lincoln  is  dead  I 

"  In  peace,  great  martyr,  sleepi 
Thy  people  weep, 

But  stop  their  tears  to  swear  upon  thy  grave, 
The  cause  thou  died' st  for  they  but  live  to  save; 
And  the  great  bond  cemented  by  thy  blood 
Shall  stand  unbroken  as  it  still  hath  stood. 

"Martyr  of  freedom!  may  thy  mantle  rest' 

On  him  who  standest  now  to  help  and  save ; 
While  every  drop  that  from  tiiy  wounds  out-pressed, 
Shall  bloom  in  flowers  on  treason's  bloody  grave !" 

FAVORTTE  POEM  OP  MR.   LINCOLN. 

The  following  poem  and  the  incidents  connected  with  its  re- 
production and  recital  will  now  have  a  new  and  touching  in- 
terest. The  artist,  Mr.  Carpenter,  was  an  inmate  of  the  Presi- 
dential Mansion  for  several  months,  engaged  in  painting  the 
scene  of  the  Proclamation  of  Freedom  issued  on  the  1st  day  of 
January,  18G3,  and  in  which  the  President  and  his  Cabinet 
Ministers — William  H.  Seward,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Edwin  M. 


265 

Stanton,  Gideon  Welles,  Caleb  B.  Smith,  Montgomery  Blair,  and 
Edward  Bates — have  a  life-like  re^wesentation.  The  poem  was 
written  in  1778,  by  Alexander  Knox,  of  Edinburgh,  Scotland, 
"who  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-six  years — incidents,  it  seems, 
unknown  to  Mr,  Lincoln.  This  poem,  so  rich  in  sentiment  and 
beauty,  and  which  he  repeated  with  such  frequency  and  delight, 
unveils  many  of  the  mysteries  of  his  marvellous  life ;  and  the 
first  and  the  last  stanzas  had  a  mournful  fulfilment  in  his  own 
sudden  death.     Mr.  Carpenter  says  : 

I  was  with  the  President  alone  one  evening  in  his  room,  during  the  time  I 
was  painting  my  large  picture  at  the  White  House,  in  1864.  He  presently 
threw  aside  his  pen  and  papers,  and  began  to  talk  to  me  of  Shakspeare.  He 
sent  little  "Tad,"  his  son,  to  the  library  to  bring  a  copy  of  the  plays,  and  then 
read  to  me  several  of  his  favorite  passages,  showing  genuine  appreciation  of  the 
great  poet.  Relapsing  into  a  sadder  strain,  he  laid  the  book  aside,  and  leaning 
back  in  his  chair,  said : 

"  There  is  a  poem  which  has  been  a  great  favorite  with  me  for  years,  which 
was  first  shown  to  me,  when  a  young  man,  by  a  friend,  and  which  I  afterward 
saw  and  cut  from  a  newspaper  and  learned  by  heart.  I  would,"  he  continued, 
"give  a  great  deal  to  know  who  wrote  it,  but  I  have  never  been  able  to 
ascertain." 

Then  half  closing  his  eyes  he  repeated  to  me  the  lines  which  I  enclose  to  you. 
Greatly  pleased  and  interested,  I  told  him  I  would  like,  if  ever  an  opportunity 
occurred,  to  write  them  down  from  his  lips.  He  said  he  would  some  time  try 
to  give  them  to  me.  A  few  days  afterward  he  asked  me  to  accompany  him  to 
the  temporary  studio  of  Mr.  Swayne,  the  sculptor,  who  was  making  a  bust  of 
him  at  the  Treasury  Department.  While  he  was  sitting  for  the  bust  I  was  sud- 
denly reminded  of  the  poem,  and  said  to  him  that  then  would  be  a  good  time 
to  dictate  it  to  me.  He  complied,  and  sitting  upon  some  books  at  his  feet,  as 
nearly  as  I  can  remember,  I  wrote  the  lines  down,  one  by  one,  from  his  lips  : 

0,  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud  ? 
Like  a  swift-fleeing  meteor,  a  fast-flying  cloud, 
A  flash  of  the  lightning,  a  break  of  the  wave, 
He  passeth  from  life  to  his  rest  in  the  grave. 

The  leaves  of  the  oak  and  the  willow  shall  fade, 
Be  scattered  around  and  together  be  laid. 
And  the  young  and  the  old,  and  the  low  and  the  high, 
Shall  moulder  to  dust  and  together  shall  lie. 

The  infant  a  mother  attended  and  loved  ; 
The  mother  that  infant's  affection  who  proved ; 
The  husband  that  mother  and  infant  who  blessed, 
Each,  all,  are  away  to  their  dwellings  of  rest. 


266 

The  hand  of  the  king  that  the  sceptre  hath  borne ; 
The  brow  of  the  priest  that  the  mitre  hath  worn  ; 
The  eye  of  the  sage  and  the  heart  of  the  brave, 
Are  hidden  and  lost  in  the  depths  of  the  grave. 

The  peasant  whose  lot  was  to  sow  and  to  reap  ; 
The  herdsman  who  climbed  with  his  goats  up  the  steep; 
The  beggar  who  wandered  in  search  of  his  bread, 
Have  faded  away  like  the  grass  that  we  tread. 

So  the  multitude  goes,  like  the  flower  or  the  weed 
That  withers  away  to  let  others  succeed ; 
So  the  multitude  comes,  even  those  we  behold, 
To  repeat  every  tale  that  has  often  been  told. 

For  we  are  the  same  our  fathers  have  been; 
We  see  the  same  sights  our  fathers  have  seen — 
We  drink  the  same  stream  and  view  the  same  sun 
And  run  the  same  course  our  fathers  have  run. 

The  thoughts  we  are  thinking  our  fathers  would  think; 
From  the  death  we  are  shrinking  our  fathers  would  shrink ; 
To  the  life  we  are  clinging  they  also  would  cling; 
But  it  speeds  for  us  all,  like  a  bird  on  the  wing. 

They  loved,  but  the  story  we  cannot  unfold ; 
They  scorned,  but  the  heart  of  the  haughty  is  cold ; 
They  grieved,  but  no  wail  from  their  slumber  will  come  ; 
They  joyed,  but  the  tongue  of  their  gladness  is  dumb. 

They  died,  aye!  died ;  we  things  that  are  now, 
That  walk  on  the  turf  that  lies  over  their  brow, 
And  make  in  their  dwellings  a  transient  abode. 
Meet  the  things  that  they  met  on  their  pilgrimage  road. 

Yea!  hope  and  despondency,  pleasure  and  pain, 
We  mingle  together  in  sunshine  and  rain ; 
And  the  smile  and  the  tear,  the  song  and  the  dirge, 
Still  follow  each  other,  like  surge  upon  surge. 

'Tis  the  wink  of  an  eye,  'tis  the  draught  of  a  breath, 
From  the  blossom  of  health  to  the  paleness  of  death — 
From  the  gilded  saloon  to  the  bier  and  the  shroud  : 
0,  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud  ? 

This  Memorial  "Record,  so  abundant  in  tributes  of  affection 
ind  honor  to  the  late  lamented  President  of  the  United  States, 


267 

and  so  rich  in  lessons  of  patriotism  and  piety,  has  a  fitting  close 
in  the  following 

HISTORIC    APOSTROPHE. 

To  the  memory 
of 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 

President  of  the  United  States  of  America, 

Who  died  a  martyr  to  his  country. 

Falling  under  the  hand  of  a  traitor  assassin. 

On  the  night  of  the  14th  day  of  April,  1865, 

The  fourth  anniversary  of  the  beginning  of  the  great 

"WAR   OF   EEBELLION, 

Through  which  he  led  tlie  nation  to  a  glorious  triumph. 
Just  completed  when  the  dastardly  revenge  of  vanquished  treason  was  wrought 

in  this  monstrous  murder. 

The  Great  Republic  loved  him 

As  its  Father, 

And  reverenced  him  as  the  preserver  of  its  national  life. 

The  oppressed  people  of  all  lands  looked  up  to  him 

As  the  anointed  of  liberty,  and  hailed  in  him  the  consecrated 

Leader  of  her  cause. 

He  struck  the  chains  of  slavery  from  four  millions  of  a  despised  race,  and,  with  a 

noble  faith  in  humanity, 

Raised  them  to  the  admitted  dignity  of  manhood. 

By  his  wisdom,  his  prudence,  his  calm  temper,  his  steadfast  patience, 

His  lofty  courage,  and  his  loftier  faith. 

He  saved  the  Republic  from  dissolution; 

By  his  simple  integrity,  he  illustrated  the  neglected  principles  of  its  Constitution, 

and  restored  them  to  their  just  ascendancy; 

By  all  the  results  of  his  administration  of  its  government, 

He  inaugurated  a  New  Era  in  the  history  of  mankind. 

The  wisdom  of  his  statesmanship  was  excelled 

Only  by  its  virtuousness  ; 

Exercising  a  power  which  surpassed  that  of  kings, 

He  bore  himself  always  as 

The  servant  of  the  people. 

And  never  its  master. 


268 

Too  sincere  in  the  simplicity  of  his  nature  to  be  affected  by  an  elevation, 

The  proudest  among  human  dignities, 

He  stands  in  the  ranks  of  the  ilUustrious  of  all  time  as 

The  proudest  exemplar  of  Democracy. 

While  goodness  is  beloved 

And  great  deeds  are  remembered, 

The  world  vyill  never  cease  to  honor  the  name  and  memory 

of 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Monuments  are  about  to  rise  at  the  capital  of  the  nation 
and  in  various  States  and  cities  of  the  Union,  to  the  life  uijd 
memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  late  President  of  the  United 
States  ;  and  on  them  will  be  engraven  sentiments  similar  to 
those  of  the  sublime  apostrophe  recorded  above. 

But  the  best  and  most  enduring  monuments  to  perpetuate  his 
life  and  illustrious  services  will  be  in  the  hearts  of  his  fel- 
low-countrymen, OP  THE  MILLIONS  HE  EMANCIPATED,  AND  OP 
THE  LOVERS  OP  LIBERTY  IN  EVERY  CLIME  AND  THROUGH  ALL 
COMING  AGES  I 


INDEX. 


I.  Memorable   Days   and  Events  preceding   Ihe  President's 
Death. 

Character  and  Popularity  of  the  President,  5,  6 ;  Second  Inaugu- 
ration— Chief  Justice  Chase  administers  the  Oath — An  Open 
Bible — The  Chapter — Sun  comes  brightly  out,  6  ;  Inaugural 
Address,  7,  8 ;  Opinions  of  an  English  Statesman — Of  the 
British  and  American  Press,  8,  9. 

II.  Visit  of  the  President  to  the  Army  and  to  Eichmond,  and 
return. 

Conferences  with  General  Grant,  11;  With  Campbell  in  Rich- 
mond, 9,  10 ;  Return,  13 ;  Speech  on  his  return,  at  the  White 
House,  14-17. 

III.  President's  Last  Day  on  Earth. 

Its  Incidents,  19-21. 
TV.  Threats  of  Assassination. 

Proof  of  the  same,  24-27. 

V.  Assassination  of  the  President,  and  his  Dying  Scenes. 

Incidents  attending,  29-37;  Announced  by  the  Secretary  of 
War,  38 ;  Notes  of  the  Physician  when  Dying,  39 ;  Body 
removed  to  Presidential  Mansion,  40;  Autopsy,  41;  Em- 
balmment, 41,  42. 

VI.  Testimony  in  regard  to  the  Assassination,  and  accounts  of 
eye-witnesses. 

Major  Rathbone's  Affidavit,  42,  43,  44  ;   Miss  Harris's,  44. 
VII.  John  Wilkes  Booth,  the  Assassin  of  the  President. 

Statement  of  Mr.  Ferguson,  45-47;  Government  Reward  for 
Apprehension  of  the  Assassins,  47,  48  ;  Capture  and  Death  of 
the  Assassin,  48,  49  ;  Extent  of  the  Conspiracy  to  Assassinate 
the  President,  49,  50 ;  President  Johnson's  Reward  for  Davis 

269 


2T0 

and  other  Leaders  of  the  Eebellion,  50 ;  Military  CommisBion 
for  the  Trial  of  the  Accomplices  of  Booth,  51,  52. 

VIII.  Inauguration  of  President  Johnson. 

Communication  of  the  Cabinet  to  him,  54;  Sworn  into  OfQce 
by  Chief  Justice  Chase,  55 ;  President's  Eemarks,  55,  56 ;  An- 
nouncement of  his  Inauguration  by  the  Cabinet,  56,  57. 

IX.  Meeting  of  Senators  and  Members  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. 

Their  Proceedings  and  Pvesolutions  on  the  Death  of  President 
Lincoln,  59-61. 

X.  Meeting  of  Clergymen — Their  Visit  to  President  Johnson. 

Proceedings  and  Resolutions,  63-68 ;  Interview  with  the  Presi- 
dent, and  the  President's  Address,  69-73. 

XI.  President  Lincoln's  Eemains  lying  in  State  in  the  Presiden- 
tial Mansion. 

His  Appearance  in  Death,  73;  The  Coffin,  74;  Catafalque, 
75 ;  Thousands  of  Visitors,  76. 

XII.  Funeral  Services  at  the  President's  House. 

Scene  in  the  East  Room,  77,  78 ;  The  Audience  in  the  East  Room, 
79,  80;  Scriptures  Read  by  Dr.  Hall,  81-83;  Prayer  of  Bishop 
Simpson,  83-85 ;  Funeral  Address  of  Dr.  Gurley,  85-92. 

XIV.  Funeral  Procession  from  the  Presidential  Mansion  to  the 
Capitol. 

Its  Description  and  Order,  93-101 ;  Remains  in  the  Rotunda, 
102,  103;  Burial  Service  Read,  103;  Guard  of  Honor,  104; 
Removal  of  the  Body  to  the  Cars,  105,  106;  Order  of  Secretary 
of  War  regulating  the  Transportation  of  the  Remains  to 
Springfield,  Illinois,  106,  107;  Time  and  Arrangement  desig- 
nated by  Governor  Brough  and  John  W.  Garrett,  107,  108 ; 
Names  of  the  Guard  of  Honor  and  Committee  who  accompa- 
nied remains  to  Springfield,  109,  110. 

XV.  Official  Orders  concerning  the  President's  Death. 

Order  of  Secretary  Stanton  to  the  Army,  111,  112;  Of  Secretary 
Welles  to  the  Navy,  112,  113 ;  Of  Secretary  McCullough  to 
the  Officers  of  the  Revenue  Marine,  113 ;  Of  Postmaster  Den- 
nison  to  Deputy  Postmasters,  114 ;  Of  ^Ir.  Hunter,  Acting 
Secretary  of  State,  to  all  connected  with  the  State  Depart- 
ment, 114  ;  Of  Secretary  Usher  to  the  Employees  of  the  In- 
terior Department,  114;  General  Meade's  Order  to  his  Army, 
114, 115;  General  Sherman's  Order  to  his  Army,  115;  Feeling 
in  General  Sherman's  Army,  115, 116;  Obsequies  in  the  Army, 
116,  117;  General  Hancock's  Appeal  to  the  Colored  People. 


271 

117, 118  ;  the  General  Court  Martial,  118  ;  Major  Burnliam's 
Address,  118,  119. 

XVI.  Action  of  the  Diplomatic  Body. 

Russian  Minister's  Address  to  President  Johnson,  119  ;  Address 
of  tlie  Swiss  Consul,  120,  121;  The  President's  Reply,  121; 
Expression  of  Sympathy  from  the  French  Minister,  121. 

XVII.  Tributes  of  the  States  represented  at  Washington. 

Proceedings  and  Resolutions  of  New  Hampshire,  123-125;  Of 
Massachusetts,  125,  126  ;  Extract  of  Governor  Andrew's  Mes- 
sage to  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  126;  Of  Connecti- 
cut, 127-129;  Governor  Buckingham's  Address,  129;  Of  New 
York,  129,  130  ;  Governor  Fenton's  Proclamation  concerning 
the  President's  Death,  130  ;  Of  New  Jersey,  131  ;  Of  Pennsyl- 
vania ;  131-133  ;  Of  Ohio,  133,  134 ;  Of  Indiana,  134,  135 
Governor  Morton's  Request  to  the  Citizens  of  Indiana,  135 
Of  Illinois,  135-137;  Of  Kentucky,  137;  Of  Iowa,  137,  138 
Governor  Stone  to  the  People  of  Iowa,  138  ;  Of  Wisconsin, 
188-140 ;  Of  Kansas,  140,  141 ;    Of  Missouri,  141,  142 ;  Of 
Citizens  from  the  Pacific  Coast,  141,  142;  Funeral  Services  iu 
San  Francisco,  142 ;  In  Denver,  Colorado,  143. 

XVIII.  Tributes  of  the  Courts  and  Civic  Bodies  in  Washington. 

United  States  Court  of  Claims,  145  ;  Solicitor  Weed's  Speech, 
announcing  the  President's  Death,  145,  146 ;  Response  of 
Chief  Justice  Casey,  146,  147 ;  Levy  Court  of  the  County  of 
Washington,  147,  148 ;  Expressions  of  the  Bar  and  Grand 
Jury,  148,  149 ;  City  Council  of  Washington,  149,  150 ;  City 
Council  of  Georgetown,  150,  151 ;  National  Democratic  Asso- 
ciation, 151, 152  ;  German  Citizens,  152;  Colored  Citizens,  153, 
154 ;  Reference  to  other  Bodies,  154. 

XIX.  Funeral  Honors  on  the  route  from  Washington  to  Spring- 
field. 

Ode  on  the  Procession,  by  R.  H.  Stoddard,  155, 156 ;  Apostrophe 
on  the  Procession,  by  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  156  ;  Obse- 
quies at  Baltimore,  156-158;  Scene  at  York,  Pa.,  157,  158; 
Honors  at  Ilarrisburg,  158-160;  Obsequies  at  Philadelphia, 
160-165;  Funeral  Honors  in  New  York,  166-169  ;  Bancroft's 
Oration,  169-174;  Scenes  between  New  York  and  Albany, 
179,180;  Funeral  Honors  at  Albany,  182-184;  Scenes  between 
Albany  and  Buffalo,  184 ;  Funeral  Honors  at  Buffalo,  184, 185 ; 
Ceremonies  at  Cleveland,  185-188 ;  Funeral  Honors  at  Colum- 
bus, Ohio,  188-191;  Stevenson's  Oration,  191-193;  Seenea 
between  Columbus  and  Indianapolis,  194-196 ;  Funeral  Hon- 
ors at  Indianapolis,  196-199  ;  Scenes  between  Indianapolis 
and  Chicago,  200,  201;  Funeral  Honors  at  Chicago,  201-204; 


272 

Colfax's  Oration,  204-218 ;  Scenes  between  Chicago  and 
Springfield,  218,  219;  Funeral  Ceremonies  at  Springfield, 
219-228 ;  Bishop  Simpson's  Oration,  228-236. 

XX.  Tributes  and  Sympathy  of  Foreign  Nations. 

Great  Britian,  239 ;  Earl  Piussell's  and  Earl  Derby's  Remarks 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  239,  240;  Sir  George  Grey's  and  Mr. 
Disraeli's  Remarks  in  the  House  of  Commons,  240 ;  Address 
of  the  Queen — Not  obtained,  and  the  reason,  241 ;  Unofficial 
Address  of  Members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  241 ;  Queen's 
Letter  to  Mrs.  Lincoln,  allusion  to,  242;  Sir  Frederic  Bruce's 
Letters,  242;  Letter  of  Emancipation  Society  in  England  to 
Mrs.  Lincoln,  242;  Emancipation  Society  in  London,  242, 
243;  Meeting  at  Liverpool,  243;  Remarks  of  the  English 
Press,  243,  244,  245 ;  Sympathy  and  Tribute  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  France,  245,  246 ;  Count  de  Paris's  Letter  to  Senator 
Sumner,  247,  248;  Allusion  to  the  Empress's  Letter  to  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  248;  Action  of  the  Government  of  Prussia,  249; 
Scene  in  a  Berlin  Church,  250,  251. 

XXI.  Meeting  of  Americans  in  Foreign  Countries. 

In  London,  257;  Minister  Adams's  Address,  257;  In  Rome,  258; 
Resolutions,  258,  259;  Paris,  259;  Scene  in  the  American 
Chapel,  (Dr.  Sunderland's,)  260;  American  Legation,  260. 

XXII.  National  Humiliation  and  Prayer. 

Proclamation  by  President  Johnson,  261,  262;  Observance  of 
the  Day,  262;  Development  of  the  Religious  Element  of  the 
Nation,  262-264. 

XXIII.  Favorite  Poem  of  President  Lincoln. 

Its  Origin,  264,265;  Recites  to  Mr.  Carpenter,  265;  The 
Poem,  265,  266. 

XXIV.  Historic  Apostrophe. 

Its  Language  and  Truth,  267,  268. 


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